Evil Within
by The Silent Scream
Summary: The apocalypse was averted, the horsemen and the monstrosity from another dimension defeated, and Sunnydale is back to more or less normal. When Willow starts going through some changes though, another challenge comes up faster than expected. Willow/OC
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: As promised (or threatened, hehe) in the last chapter of the previous fic, here we go with the next one :) Unlike with the one I posted before, this one was quite easy and also much more fun to write, I hope it'll show and that you'll enjoy it. Feedback is highly appreciated!

Disclaimer: All characters, location and so on used from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are not mine, but property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy etcetera etcetera, I'm just borrowing them for a while and I'm making no money with them.

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><p><span>Evil Within<span>

When he rose from his grave and saw the teenage girl sitting beneath an old oak tree, the freshly sired vampire was convinced that he finally had some luck in his life – or unlife, as he probably should say now, he figured while he looked at the grave he just had dug himself out of, at the gravestone marked with his name and the day he had died. Before that fateful day, his life had mostly sucked, one streak of bad luck following the next; finally though, it seemed as if that had come to an end, a tasty looking girl right in front of him, seemingly unaware of his presence, focused on the book she was reading, not noticing how he started to sneak up to her, his mouth watering as he thought of how sweet her blood would taste.

If he had stopped for a second to ask himself why a girl who wasn't even eighteen yet would sit at the cemetery in the middle of the night, he might have reconsidered attacking her; since that particular thought never entered his mind though, he just kept sneaking up to her, letting out a low growl the moment he was close enough to grab her, his face morphing when he showed his newly gained vampiric side to the world. To his surprise though, all he managed to grab was thin air, since the girl had rolled out of the way with stunning grace when he had tried to snatch her; she came to her feet with the same elegance, his surprise turning into shock when she reached to the back of her pants, clutching a stake when she brought her hand forward again.

"Thought you'd have your first meal delivered right to your grave, huh?" she asked, twirling the stake as if to underline her words. "Gotta disappoint you about that, pal."

Getting over his shock quickly, the vampire snarled at the girl, then lunged forward to grab her once more; she sidestepped him easily, swiftly delivering a blow into his back and sending him stumbling forwards, nearly making him fall when his feet tangled up. In the last second, he managed to regain his balance and spun around, but she already was right there in front of him, punching him straight in the face; snarling with a mixture of pain and surprise, he took another step back, then brought up his fists and attacked again, his eyes never leaving the stake the girl still was clutching.

His dismay turned into annoyance when she managed to duck the first few punches he was throwing at her; then, his face lit up when his fist finally connected with her jaw and sent her sprawling, a grin showing his fangs when the stake fell out of her hand and to the ground. Quickly before she could grasp it again, he kicked it away, then bent down to grab the girl at the throat; struggling, she tried to get out of his grip, to no avail though, a gasp coming from her when he jerked her to her feet, then lifted her up in the air.

"So much about disappointment", he hissed, baring his fangs again and smiling when her eyes went wide; a second later, he howled in pain and let go of her as the crossbow bolt hit him in the back, thankfully missing his heart, but giving him more than enough pain nonetheless.

"Seems like your disappointment's not going to end", a new voice now came up from behind him; ignoring the girl for now, he whirled around, only to gulp a second later when he found himself staring at two more women, clearly older than the one he had been attacking just seconds ago, the taller of the two dropping the crossbow she had wounded him with and pulling yet another stake from her belt.

Deciding to ignore the teenager for now, the vampire focused on the one who had hurt him; he growled lowly at her, then started to speed towards her – when she brought back her arm and threw the stake, smirking when it hit him right in the heart, the vampire managing to take another two steps before he dissolved into dust.

"Good shot", the smaller of the pair commented, "but you finished him off quite fast. No fighting lust tonight?"

"Not right now", the taller woman gave back, calmly strolling to where the stake had fallen to the ground and picking it up, then giving the teenager a strict look. "I'm more in the mood for scolding. What did I tell you about taking too long with the staking, Dawn?"

"Sorry", Dawn sighed out in reply, having the decency to look ashamed, "but it was going so well, Pat, you saw it!"

"Yeah, until he punched you", Pat retorted, crossing her arms over her chest after shoving the stake back into her belt. "You're lucky that'll just give you a bruise and that you didn't get hurt worse", she went on, "or Buffy would've killed me."

"Sorry", the teen repeated, now even blushing slightly and shuffling her feet, "I know I should have staked him quickly…"

"Then why didn't you do it?" Willow now threw in, moving up to the teenager and giving her a concerned look. "Pat's right, you know, you could've gotten seriously hurt. What if something like this happens when we're not around?"

"Oh please", Dawn rolled her eyes, "as if Buffy ever would let me go alone. You know it took me a week to convince her to let me go with the two of you!"

"And if you tell her I actually let you try to stake that guy, she'll kill me", Pat reminded her about the unpleasant possibility of her untimely death, "so you better don't tell her. You know she doesn't like the thought of you getting into the whole slaying business."

"Yeah, just because I don't have super strength and everything", Dawn mumbled sourly, poking the pile of dust the vampire had left behind with one foot.

"Well, super strength does make fighting easier", the demon pointed out to her in reply, "and she's just worried about you. It's good that you want to learn how to fight those uglies, it's a great idea in a town like Sunnydale, but you have to keep in mind that you're a normal human girl, not a Slayer and not a demon. Fight accordingly."

"I'll try to keep that in mind", Dawn promised after thinking about that little speech for a moment; satisfied, Pat smirked and nodded, only to groan and roll her eyes at what the teenager said next. "So, wanna go and find another one?"

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><p>"I hope Dawn really doesn't tell Buffy about what we let her do tonight", Pat stated two hours later, on the way back home from the Summers' house, where they had dropped off the Slayer's little sister, grimacing as she thought about how Buffy might react to hearing about the danger Dawn had put herself in – and about the fact that Pat and Willow had let it happen.<p>

"I'm sure she won't", the witch now reassured her, grasping her girlfriend's hand and smiling up at her, "because she knows that, if she does, Buffy won't let her go along on patrol anymore for another two years or so. It took long enough to convince her that she's old enough to come along now."

"Good point", the demon admitted, a bit calmer about the whole situation now – when Buffy had asked them to take over patrol for the next few nights due to the painful fact that a vampire had managed to dislocate her shoulder during the fight of the previous night, Dawn had bugged her to let them take her along for almost two hours until the Slayer had agreed, clearly worried about her sister's welfare despite the fact that she had been teaching her how to fight for the last two years now.

"You made a good point tonight, too", Willow now let her girlfriend know, distracting her from her musings about the injured Slayer and her sister, "when you told Dawn that she should fight like a human. She's seen Buffy and you fight so often now, I think she tends to forget that she's not as strong and as experienced as the two of you."

"Obviously", Pat grimaced, shaking her head to herself as she thought of how Dawn had taken her time with staking the vampire, only to end up in his grasp, not wanting to imagine what would have happened if Willow and she hadn't been around to help her.

"Well, it's kinda understandable", the redhead shrugged, smiling when she received a confused look from the taller woman in reply, quickly clarifying her words as she spoke on. "Just think about it, she's seen the two of you fight for years, and she looks up to both of you. Maybe she didn't do it consciously, but I think she wanted to impress you tonight, show you that she can be just as strong."

"Well, she better not try that again", Pat sighed out in reply, briefly letting go of her girlfriend's hand so she could get out her cigarettes and light one of them up, "or she will end up hurt one day when we're not around to help her."

"I'm quite sure she learned her lesson", Willow reassured her, "she's always been quick to learn such things. When she wasn't doing silly things on purpose after Buffy annoyed her, but she's gotten better about that lately."

"Might be because she's getting older and wiser", the demon smirked, making Willow giggle before she playfully poked the taller woman's side, her next words making her raise an eyebrow. "You must be awfully wise then by now, seeing you're two hundred and fourty one years old."

"I'm too reckless to be wise", Pat gave back, smiling when she made the witch laugh once more; nodding, Willow then moved closer to her so she could put one arm around the taller woman's waist, making her smile widen before she put her arm around the witch's shoulders, the couple walking on like that until they reached their apartment building.

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><p>To her surprise, Pat found Willow in the kitchen after she had made a quick trip to the bathroom once they had gotten home; standing in front of the fridge, the redhead was removing several items needed for a proper sandwich from there, placing them on the kitchen counter, her stomach grumbling so loud that the demon even heard it where she stood in the doorframe.<p>

"Normally, I'm the one who's hungry after patrol", she commented while she strolled over to the witch's side, raising an eyebrow when she moved to make her sandwich, putting so much stuff on it that it would be difficult to take a bite from it without dislocating her jaw.

"And you've got a big appetite tonight", she thus observed accordingly, making Willow nod while she finally decided that her snack was thick enough now and put all the food back into the fridge.

"I'm starved", she then stated the obvious, underlining her words by taking a big bite of the sandwich afterwards, somehow managing to do so without making any of the toppings fall out and to the ground.

"And I don't even know why", she added after chewing and swallowing, "I didn't do any magic tonight or anything…"

"You had lunch, right?" the demon wanted to know with a frown – after all, she knew very well how Willow sometimes forgot to do just that at college when Buffy wasn't there to make sure she'd eat something, too busy with her studies and the huge library the campus was offering.

"I did", the redhead now reassured her, her words followed by another large bite of the sandwich, "which is why I really don't know why I'm that hungry."

"Maybe it was the excitement of seeing Dawn nearly get eaten", Pat shrugged after a moment, smirking and taking a bite of the sandwich as well when Willow offered it to her; afterwards, the redhead grabbed a plate from one of the cupboards and made her way into the living room, making herself comfortable on the couch there, the demon sitting down next to her a second later.

"Want some TV while you finish that beast of a sandwich?" she asked, picking up the remote when Willow nodded, her full mouth keeping her from answering any other way; smirking, the demon switched on the TV, then leaned back into the couch, zapping through the channels until she found something which at least was interesting enough to keep them occupied until the redhead would be done with her snack and they'd go to bed. Thanks to how starved Willow clearly had been when they had came home, it didn't take long until that happened; with a satisfied sigh, she put the emptied plate on the table, then covered her mouth to stifle a burp, making her girlfriend smirk again. "Think you'll be able to sleep with that monstrous sandwich in your tummy now?"

"If not, you'll just have to rub my tummy until I do", the witch gave back, getting up from her seat; this prompted Pat to switch the TV off again before she did the same, yawning as she made her way into the bedroom with the smaller woman.

"Just tell me if you need a tummy rub", she stated while changing into her pyjama, then removed her eye patch and put it on the nightstand, another big yawn escaping her while she laid down, Willow doing the same a moment later.

"I think I'm fine", she stated after making herself comfortable, "but I think I'll need some snuggles."

"That I can provide", Pat gave back, smiling while she opened her arms; with a smile curling her lips as well, Willow moved into the embrace, snuggling as close as possible to the taller woman and resting her head on her shoulder before she closed her eyes, drifting off into dreamland just a few minutes later.


	2. Chapter 2

In the next morning, Willow was the first one to wake up, even though she only had classes in the early afternoon and hadn't set the alarm clock; after a hearty yawn, she carefully disentangled herself from her girlfriend's embrace, managing to do so without waking her up, then got out of bed and made her way into the bathroom. While she went through her morning hygiene routine there, she noticed – to her astonishment – that she was quite hungry again; briefly, she wondered if this was something she should be worried about, then shrugged it off, deciding that a properly sized breakfast was in order and that this strange sudden need for so much food probably just was some kind of symptom, caused by the stress she currently had at college, thanks to several exams coming up.

Once she had finished her morning hygiene, she made her way into the kitchen, figuring that she could prefer breakfast before she'd wake her girlfriend up to join her; since her stomach by now was grumbling quite loudly again, she decided on a rather hearty portion of ham and eggs, adding some leftover bacon as well, then put several slices of bread into the toaster before she moved to prepare the coffee.

While it was running through with the usual rather loud noise, the witch focused on the ham, eggs and bacon, from time to time glancing at the kitchen's entrance as she wondered if Pat would wake up on her own or if she'd need to wake her up after all; when the demon still was fast asleep by the time the food got done, the redhead smirked to herself and shook her head, switching off the oven so she wouldn't set the place on fire before she made her way into the bedroom again, the soft snoring sounds which greeted her showing her clearly that her girlfriend still was slumbering deeply.

For a moment, Willow wondered if she really should wake her up or not; then, she decided that she didn't want to have breakfast alone and quietly moved closer to the bed, figuring that if she'd tear her loved one out of sweet dreams, it should be done pleasantly. Smiling to herself, she bent over the taller woman and kissed her gently; it didn't take long until Pat responded, smirking slightly as well when she opened her good eye and looked up at the redhead.

"Good morning", Willow greeted her, moving one hand to caress her hair tenderly, then pulling back when the demon yawned and sat up, rubbing her eye with one hand while she automatically reached for the eye patch with the other one.

"I made breakfast", the redhead informed her girlfriend, "that's why I woke you up." As always, she received only a low grunt in reply, and as always, she didn't mind; giggling to herself, she watched her girlfriend trot into the bathroom for her morning routine, then made her way back into the kitchen, readying the breakfast there, her stomach grumbling loudly once more at the sight and smell of the food and the coffee.

Still, she made herself wait until Pat finally joined her ten minutes later; with a hearty yawn, the demon sat down at the table, letting out an approving grumble when the redhead put a plate of food down in front of her. Her morning grumpiness vanished surprisingly quickly though when she saw the size of the portion Willow had put on her own plate; raising an eyebrow, the demon still took the time to take a long gulp of her coffee before she spoke up, surprising the redhead with gaining her ability to talk so quickly after getting up, something which hardly ever happened. "You're having quite the appetite again."

"I know, isn't it weird?" Willow gave back, not letting this stop her from shovelling a forkful of food into her mouth, chewing and swallowing with obvious satisfaction. "I hope this won't go on too long, or I'll get fat", she added afterwards, a gulp of coffee following before another large forkful of food was moved up to her mouth; frowning, Pat watched her eat, now clearly troubled – during the time they had been together, she never had seen the witch gobble her food down like that, not even when she had been terribly hungry after doing some of the more difficult spells of her repertoire.

"You know, I may be overreacting or something", the black haired woman started after watching her girlfriend eat – or, better said, devour – breakfast for another two minutes, "but maybe this should be checked. We could ask Giles or something."

"Ask Giles about my appetite?" the redhead gave back, now frowning as well, briefly lowering her fork while she looked at her lover. "That does sound like an overreaction indeed. Why do you think we should do that?"

"Well", the demon slowly replied, trying to sort her thoughts so she could voice them properly, something which wasn't all too easy with her brain still half asleep, "I've known you for quite some time now, and you've never munched down like that. I just think it's a bit odd, is all."

"It's probably just because of the college stress, you know", Willow tried to calm her down in reply, "I'm sure I'll go back to my normal eating levels as soon as those exams are over. Don't be worried, okay?"

"I'll try", Pat sighed after a moment, giving her a small smile afterwards. "But I'll go back to being worried when you still munch down like that after your exams. Deal?"

"Deal", the redhead agreed, returning her girlfriend's smile before she focused on breakfast again, the demon doing the same after a moment, giving her best to keep her worries about the redhead's strange behaviour out of her mind, not fully succeeding though.

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><p>To the redhead's dismay, Buffy noticed about her strangely heightened appetite as well, eying her plate curiously when they met for lunch, making a comment the moment they had found a free table and had sat down. "Big lunch, huh?"<p>

"Yeah", the witch gave back in a non-committing way, "I'm quite hungry."

"No kidding", the Slayer smirked, to Willow's relief dropping the topic by changing it and asking her how patrol had been last night.

"It went well", she lied, momentarily feeling bad, but knowing that they couldn't tell her about Dawn's little mishap, "just a few random vampires, which Pat finished off quickly."

"I'm lucky I'm friends with a demon who never tires of beating up vampires and other monsters", Buffy sighed out in reply, glancing down on her injured arm in dismay before she looked up at her best friend again. "She doesn't mind taking over patrol for another few nights, right? Giles says I should make sure that shoulder heals properly before I fight again."

"Oh, you know she doesn't mind", Willow immediately reassured her, interrupting herself with a big bite from her sandwich, speaking on after chewing and swallowing. "She'll be happy to hear that, in fact. Will Dawn tag along again as well?"

"Probably", the blonde sighed, clearly not all too happy about this, "she was all hyped up when she came home yesterday, so she clearly enjoyed herself. I should ask Giles if she can be made the Slayer, seeing how keen she's on taking over."

"She just wants to be part of that, too", Willow smiled in reply, briefly making Buffy wonder about that unexpected insight into her teenaged sister, "it's such a big part of your life, of all our lives, so of course she wants to join us and help. You should be glad she shows an interest in what you do!"

"I wish she'd show interest in my studies though, and not in my slaying", Buffy mumbled, then shrugged it off and smiled at her friend, changing the topic once more by asking her how things were with her girlfriend; deciding not to mention the demon's concern about her new, unexplained appetite, the redhead merely smiled back and told her things were going great, surprised when the Slayer let out yet another sigh in reply.

"You know", she then stated, sounding serious again, "sometimes I'm kinda envious when I think about how long the two of you have been together. Especially since it still works out so well."

"Um", Willow let out as an answer, not sure what she could reply to that, "well… I know I'm lucky, but don't feel down! I'm sure you'll find the right guy for you soon, too."

"I hope so", Buffy gave back gloomily, only to perk up again moments later, a mischief glint in her eyes when she spoke on. "And I hope he'll be as whipped by me as Pat is by you."

"Pat's not whipped!" Willow protested, giggling and shaking her head; smirking as well, Buffy raised an eyebrow, then wriggled her fingers at the next, still with that mischief tone in her voice when she replied. "She totally is! You tell her to jump and she asks how high."

"That's an exaggeration", Willow claimed, giggling again while she picked up one of her fries and threw it at the Slayer, missing horribly, but not really minding, "she'd ask first why."

After the last word, she started giggling for a third time; this time, Buffy laughed with her, both of them still smiling when they left the cafeteria twenty minutes later, enjoying each other's company and the relaxed and happy atmosphere between them.

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><p>Just like during the night before, Dawn did come along on patrol; to Buffy's surprise, just Pat came to pick her up, the demon shrugging at the questioning look the Slayer was giving her.<p>

"Willow didn't want to come along", she then explained, "she said she's got to study for her exams. I promise I'll have my eye on Dawn though."

"I'm not worried about that", Buffy reassured her, "I know she's safe with you."

"Can we go then?" the teenager demanded to know before Pat had a chance to reply, "I wanna get moving! Come on, Pat!"

"Off we go then", the demon smirked while Buffy rolled her eyes at how overeager her sister was; she still made Dawn listen to a small lecture about being careful and about knowing her own strengths and weaknesses, then let them go at last, the teenager letting out an audible heavy breath the moment the door had fallen close behind her sister.

"Finally she let us go", she then stated, looking up at Pat while they walked away from the house and down the sidewalk, "I thought she'd go on with her lecture for an hour or something. Will you let me try fighting again tonight?"

"Yeah, because I know that, even if I say no now, you'll pester me until I give in anyway, and I wanna save myself the trouble", the taller woman smirked, chuckling when Dawn let out a mildly annoyed huff, "just promise you'll be more careful, alright?"

"Sure, don't go into lecture mode now, too", the teenager gave back, rolling her eyes – before she beamed at the demon and reached into her pocket, pulling out a stake and proudly showing it to her friend. "I even brought my own stake!"

"You mean, you took one from Buffy's stash", Pat corrected, chuckling again at the look she received from Dawn for that; after a moment, the teenager poked her tongue out at her, then put the stake back into the inside pocket of her jacket, looking at the black haired woman critically afterwards.

"Didn't you bring one, too?" she then asked, a bit surprised about this lack of foresight; this feeling vanished though when the demon patted her back in reply, then reassured her that she had one wedged in her belt, to the teenager's obvious relief.

"We're all ready to kick some vampire ass then", Dawn beamed afterwards, rolling her eyes again when Pat frowned at her, then told her to remember what she had said the night before; with an annoyed sigh, the teenager reassured her that she would, her good mood returning a second later as the cemetery came in sight, a smile forming on her face again as she looked forward to the night's activities there.


	3. Chapter 3

Just like the previous night, patrol was rather unexciting, to Dawn's clear dismay; they only encountered two freshly sired vampires, getting rid of them quickly, Pat allowing the teenager to stake one of them – but only once she had a tight grip on him and he couldn't fight back, clearly not wanting a repeat of the previous night.

"You should have let me do more", Dawn thus complained to the demon while they walked back to the Summers' house, "I could totally have taken that one guy! You said you'd let me try fighting!"

"I guess so", Pat agreed, momentarily surprising her companion, "but I didn't know if any other vampires were around at the time when he popped up, and I couldn't risk it that he'd end up hurting you while I'm distracted by anyone else. You can try one of them tomorrow, when Willow comes along again, alright?"

"Alright", Dawn agreed after thinking about this for a moment, "I guess this is still better than what Buffy would let me do, which would be nothing but sitting around and watching her."

"Yup", the demon smirked, "and remember, don't tell her that Willow and I let you do anything else than that, alright? She'd rip my head off or something."

"And I'd be grounded for life, so I'll keep my mouth shut", Dawn reassured her in reply; smiling, the taller woman gave her a satisfied look, then gestured at the road ahead as they were approaching the home of the Slayer and her younger sister. "Well, there we are", she stated the obvious, "sleep tight now, and don't let the bed bugs bite. Willow and I will pick you up tomorrow again for patrol."

"Okay", the teenager agreed, then told the taller woman to take care on the way home; after reassuring her that she would, Pat turned and walked off, whistling to herself as she made her way back to the apartment building.

As always after winning a fight, she felt surprisingly relaxed and even a bit giddy, a fact which could be blamed on her demonic nature; by now though, everyone had gotten used to see such strange behaviour from her after battles, and no one minded much anymore when she seemed hyped up afterwards, most of the Scoobie gang members thinking that it was funny, the only one who didn't share this thought being Willow, who thought that it was absolutely adorable.

Thanks to her hyped up state and the faster walk which was one of its results, it didn't take the demon long to reach the building she lived in; she still whistled while she let herself in, then rode the elevator up to the second floor, not caring if any neighbours heard her or not once she had arrived there and made her way to her apartment door. With a new tune coming from her now, she unlocked the door and entered, quickly kicking off her boots and shrugging out of her jacket; briefly, she wondered if Willow still was awake, then noticed the strange light from the living room, the whistling fading away when the demon grew curious and moved to said room, quickly recognizing the source of the light as candles.

With her curiousness now reaching the highest possible level, the demon sped up and entered the living room seconds later; it took only took one look to make her mouth go dry and her good eye go wide, the ability to talk clearly fleeting her as she stood there staring, her jacket dropping out of her fingers and falling down to the floor.

Smiling at the sight of the stunned demon, Willow lifted one of the glasses she was holding and moved over to her, giving her another good look at her outfit – or the lack of it. To Pat's astonishment, her girlfriend was wearing one of her wider shirts, the ones she always used when she thought she'd have to demon out so they wouldn't tear; clearly, this was all the redhead was wearing, the first few buttons opened, just low enough to let the demon get quite the good peek at her cleavage.

"Thirsty?" the redhead now asked, reaching her girlfriend and holding up one of the two glasses, the black haired woman only now able to identify it as red wine; nodding, still dumbstruck, Pat accepted the glass, unable to take her eye off Willow, her reaction clearly pleasing the smaller woman.

"I figured I'd surprise you", she now stated casually, "it's been a while since I did that…" Finally, the demon seemed to snap out of her trance, since a smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth, a well-known, lusty glint entering her eye; without having taken even one sip, she put the wineglass on the nearest surface, making Willow smile as well when the taller woman took her glass from her and put it aside too.

"Not thirsty anymore, I take it", the redhead winked, not able to hold back the giggle when Pat merely let out a low growl in reply, then pulled her closer with surprising speed, their lips meeting the blink of an eye later.

When oxygen became an issue for the witch and she had to pull back, both the demon and her were panting; this clearly didn't slow the black haired woman down though, since immediately, her hands moved to open the rest of the buttons while she bent down to kiss the redhead's neck, both of them not capable of talking or even merely thinking anymore just a few minutes later.

* * *

><p>"Oh wow", Willow sighed out quite some time later, still breathless, "that was… Wow. When did we make it to bed?"<p>

"No idea", Pat mumbled beside her, shifting on the messed up bed sheets afterwards so she could take the redhead into her arms, "some time after the second round, I think."

"You kept count?" Willow giggled in reply, snuggling closer to her girlfriend, "so how many rounds were there?"

"Dunno", the demon smirked as an answer, "I lost count after we made it to the bed." This made the redhead giggle once more, Pat chuckling as well after a moment, a yawn escaping her afterwards, the cute sight making Willow smile before she yawned as well, clearly tired out after how well her surprise had worked out.

"We should get some sleep", she thus stated, not surprised when immediately, Pat nodded her agreement; the couple shared a this time rather chaste kiss, then both quickly drifted off into slumber, the only sound in the room soon being their slow, calm breaths.

* * *

><p>During the next few days, Willow's appetite remained as high as it had been lately, concerning both food and activities in the bedroom; at first, this astounded her girlfriend, but soon, she started worrying again, asking herself where all this energy was coming from and why the redhead still consumed such insane portions of food. When this strange rise of Willow's appetites had started, Pat had been thrilled; their love life hadn't been bad before, but this was taking it to new levels, levels which, as she soon realized, were too high even for her, something she never would have thought possible.<p>

It didn't take long until this not only surprised her, but also worried her; and after another two days of watching Willow eat more than it could be humanly possible without exploding and somehow managing to satisfy her heightened appetite for bedroom activities as well, the demon finally had enough and called everyone to a meeting at the Magic Box when the witch was at college, wanting to discuss this with her friends, the people who knew the redhead much longer than she did, first before she'd speak to her.

"Wow", Anya observed the moment Pat entered the store five minutes before the time she'd set for the meeting, "you look awfully tired. Is something wrong with you? That dark circle under your good eye there goes almost all the way down to your mouth."

"Tell me about it", Pat muttered in reply, letting herself drop into the nearest chair and yawning heartily – the heightened appetites of the witch clearly were taking toll on her, and she briefly wondered how much longer she'd be able to keep up before Anya distracted her by putting a cup of coffee down in front of her, surprising her with this unexpected generosity.

"Thanks", she gratefully mumbled, picking up the cup and taking a long gulp from it afterwards, not caring that the coffee was still steaming hot; Anya told her not to mention it, then looked up when the bell above the shop's door rang and signalled another entry, not a customer as she had hoped, but Buffy, the Slayer rising an eyebrow as well when she saw the demon and immediately noticed how tired the taller woman looked.

"Do you want coffee, too?" Anya asked her as a greeting while she took a seat next to Pat, her surprise now turning into concern as she got a closer look at the demon; she nodded almost absent-mindedly, then focused on the black haired woman again, her worry showing through her voice when she spoke up. "Are you okay? I've never seen you like that before."

"I'll explain once the others are here", the demon gave back, slightly touched by the obvious concern the blonde felt for her, "I'm too tired to tell twice."

"Okay", Buffy immediately accepted this, her concern growing a bit bigger at hearing those words – she had seen Pat in many conditions during the last few years, but never as obviously tired as she was now. To her relief, it didn't take long until Xander and Giles arrived, making the group the demon had called together for this meeting; they both noticed how drained Pat looked as well, didn't comment on it though, only giving her curious looks while they sat down, keeping Anya busy for another five minutes with preparing coffee for all of them.

Finally, everyone had been given a cup of coffee, allowing the ex-demon to sit down as well; as soon as she had made herself comfortable, Pat cleared her throat, then spoke up, immediately gaining the attention of everyone else. "You're probably wondering why Willow isn't around, well… I can explain that…"

With those words, she quickly told them about the witch's heightened appetite when it came to food, prompting Buffy to throw in that she had noticed that as well; clearly relieved that she wasn't the only one who had been aware of this, Pat gave her a short grateful look, then spoke on, to the amusement of everyone blushing slightly at her own words. "Well, she's not only much, much hungrier than usual about food, but also about… other stuff, if you know what I mean…"

"Sex", Anya helpfully informed anyone who might not know what the demon was talking about, "right?"

"Uh-huh", Pat mumbled, clearly embarrassed, her blush deepening; obviously uncomfortable as well, Xander cleared his throat, shifting on his seat when everyone was looking at him in response.

"So what could this be?" he asked after a few more moments of uncomfortable shifting and silence, "some sort of spell? Who'd put such a spell on Willow, and what should it accomplish? That she eats until she explodes?"

"I doubt that", Giles dryly replied, "but clearly, this is some sort of external influence which was put on her. Your… appetites… are still normal, Pat?" "Yup", the demon confirmed, "well, at least they didn't change. Dunno if they were normal before. Is it possible to find out if such a spell was put on her?"

"It is", the Watcher reassured her, her facial expression once more letting everyone see how much this relieved her, "even though it won't be easy without Willow's help… She didn't notice anything is off so far, herself?"

"Not really", the black haired woman sighed, her relief being replaced by obvious dismay, "whenever I mention it to her, she just kinda shrugs it off and blames it on the stress about college. Um… all of it."

"This might be an effect of the spell as well", Giles thought out loud, looking up at the ceiling as if this could help him to sort his thoughts, "keep her from noticing anything is amiss until it's too late… It is possible that the symptoms you described are only the start. We should do some research on that kind of spells and see if we can find anything to help us with this."

The rest just nodded in reply, then all simultaneously rose from their seats to get the books; shortly afterwards, the store fell quiet as they all were leaving through the thick volumes in front of them, looking for a way to find out what had happened to their friend and how to free her of the effects it was having on her.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Since I won't be able tomorrow or the day after tomorrow (concert tomorrow, big company meeting thingy on Friday), I'm posting the next chapter one day early, namely today. Enjoy :)

* * *

><p>"This is too cute", Anya whispered two hours later, giving her best to keep her voice low so she wouldn't destroy the sight she just had referred to that way, "I wish I had a camera!"<p>

"Anya", Buffy scolded, trying hard to speak quietly as well, "that's not nice, poor her, she's so tired…"

"I always thought it'd be the other way round, with Willow being tired out by her", Xander commented, shrugging when Buffy shot him a dirty look, then moved closer to Pat, having to admit that Anya was right – the sight of her slumbering soundly, her head resting on the book she had been going through before her tiredness had taken the better of her, _was_ kind of cute.

"She's not drooling on the book, is she", Giles demanded to know, throwing said book a worried look and receiving a dirty one from Buffy as well for his troubles; then, the Slayer moved closer to Pat, briefly wondering if the demon would react similar to her when she was woken up unexpectedly before she shrugged it off and touched the taller woman's shoulder carefully, not surprised when Pat jerked up in her seat in reply and let out a small, startled noise.

"You should go home", Buffy stated as soon as she could be sure that the demon knew where she was and wouldn't think she was under attack or something, "and get some proper rest. Giles doesn't like it when we use his books as pillows."

"Sorry", the demon mumbled in reply, tiredly rubbing at her good eye, "guess you're right, I should go home and sleep. Did you guys find anything while you let me slumber?"

"Unfortunately not yet", Giles was the one to answer that question, "but we'll keep looking into it. We'll call you the moment we find something."

"Alright", Pat gave back, then let out another hearty yawn; she gave the others an apologetic glance, then told them to be careful before she left the store, finding it hard to believe how tired she felt as she walked down the street. For a moment, she even considered calling a taxi so she wouldn't have to walk, then shook her head to herself and told herself not to be silly – she was a demon after all, with according strength and stamina, so she should be able to handle that not so far walk.

Thus, she walked on, fighting the urge to yawn again every now and then; by the time the apartment building finally appeared in the distance, she felt like rolling up on the sidewalk and falling asleep, finally giving in to the urge and letting out yet another huge yawn. A quick glance at her watch showed her that she still had almost another hour until Willow would come back from college; it was decided within the blink of an eye that she'd use that hour for slumbering, the thought of doing just that on the comfortable living room couch even making it possible for her to speed up her steps.

A few minutes later, she finally reached the building, yawning again as she entered, then moved on to the elevator; and finally, she was in the apartment, immediately falling down on the couch after taking off her shoes and jacket, drifting off into sleep again within seconds, slumbering soundly until her girlfriend came home an hour later.

* * *

><p>When Willow arrived at the apartment, the snoring of her girlfriend was already audible in the small anteroom, and she smiled to herself while she took off her shoes and jacket; a moment later, the smile was wiped from her face though as yet another stomach cramp rushed through her, a rather unpleasant sensation which had been bothering her again and again the whole day.<p>

Gritting her teeth, she bent over, one hand pressed to her tummy while she steadied herself against the wall with the other one; just like during the other times this had happened to her during the day, the pain was so intense for a moment that it felt as if someone had grabbed handfuls of her intestines and was twisting and jerking them around for the fun of it, then the pain subsided slowly, the witch momentarily closing her eyes as she let out a relieved breath.

Briefly, she wondered if she should be worried about those cramps – during all the time she had been at college now, she never had experienced something like this, not even during the most stressful times right before finals or when the deadline for a paper had come nearer and nearer and various other obligations – such as aiding the Slayer to save the world yet again – had kept her from doing any proper work on it. The thoughts about her stomach cramps led her to the unusually high appetite she had been forced to deal with during the last days, making her ask herself if this maybe was connected; then, a strange sense of indifference came over her as she shrugged it off and moved on into the living room, smiling when she found Pat on the couch there, the demon fast asleep, her feet up on the armrest, one arm dangling from the couch.

With her smile widening, she just looked at the cute sight for a few moments, thinking about how much she still was in love with this woman, despite how long they were together already; this was the longest relationship she'd ever had so far, and at the beginning, she had been worried that their passion and love might be dulled, maybe even turn into routine and some sort of habit, but by now, all those doubts were gone, replaced with the security that this wouldn't happen anytime soon.

After another loving look at her girlfriend, Willow decided that she'd let her slumber a bit longer, feeling slightly bad for tiring her out like this – it was obvious that her heightened appetites not only for food, but also in the bedroom were responsible for the tiredness of her loved one, and she figured that it couldn't hurt to let her get some more rest.

Now that the stomach cramp was gone once more, her hunger was coming back, her mouth watering as she thought of the stuff they had in the fridge; quickly, it was settled that she'd get some food first, and wake her girlfriend up once she'd eaten, a small smile appearing on her face again as she made her way into the kitchen, her cramps and the unusual nature of her strange appetites once more pushed to the far back of her mind.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, a rather large meal had been eaten and Pat had been woken up, the couple spending quite a big part of those hours on the couch afterwards with cuddling, enjoying the rare calm time before they'd have to leave for patrol.<p>

To Pat's surprise, Willow had told her that she'd come along on patrol that night, even though she had classes early in the next morning; since this clearly didn't bother her though, the demon didn't let her bother it either, but was happy about it instead, looking forward to spending some more time with her loved one – even if that time would be spent at the cemetery.

To Willow's great relief, the stomach cramps hadn't come back again ever since the painful one she'd had right after coming home; this convinced her that it only had been caused by something she'd eaten – a fact which wasn't surprising, considering the masses of food she had been munching down lately – and didn't see a reason to tell her girlfriend, knowing it would only worry her and not wanting to distract her, especially not shortly before they'd go on patrol.

Thus, she kept quiet about those strange tummy pains, hoping she wouldn't suffer from any during patrol while she got ready for just that, putting on quite bright clothes to attract the vampires and hiding a stake in the inner pocket of her jacket; since Pat only owned black and dark red clothing, it wasn't possible for her to wear bright stuff as well, but by now, they had been out on patrol together often enough to know that the clothing Willow was wearing would be enough to attract the vampires anyway.

"Plus, Dawn has a thing for bright colours too", the witch stated as they left the apartment together, after the demon had armed herself properly as well; nodding, Pat smirked and grasped her hand, sounding as amused as she looked when she replied. "She does, so the poor vampires will be confused about whom to jump first."

"Poor them indeed", Willow giggled, feeling strangely giddy now that her stomach apparently had calmed down, "but I'm sure they'll be able to handle it… Until we dust them."

Again she made the demon nod with those words, a small sigh escaping the taller woman afterwards while she pushed the button which called the elevator up to the second floor.

"I just hope she won't do anything reckless again", she then explained the reason for that unhappy noise, "but I promised her I'd let her dust one the next time you come along on patrol, and that's tonight, so…"

"I'm sure she'll keep your advice in mind", Willow reassured her in reply, "plus, even if she doesn't, you and me will be there to protect her."

"Yup, but we won't be around all the time", Pat pointed out, stepping into the elevator when it arrived a second later and pushing the button for the ground floor before she continued. "So I really hope she'll learn how to fight according to her skills and strengths. You know, I'm a bit surprised she didn't ask you about learning witchcraft yet."

"I think she's still a bit freaked out about that", Willow grimaced, her gaze darkening as she thought about the reason why Dawn might be freaked out about witchcraft. "I did some pretty stupid things when I was… well, when I was addicted to the magic", she explained, smiling slightly again when her girlfriend reached over to grasp her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, "and unfortunately, she was right next to me during one of my lowest moments… I got her hurt, and scared her pretty badly."

"I'm sure she'll get over that sooner or later", the demon shrugged after thinking about this for a moment, "and then she'll ask you to teach her. Teenagers are surprisingly good at getting over such stuff, and you got better, as well, right? She trusts you again."

"I did", Willow confirmed, "and yeah, I think she does… Maybe she's just not interested in magic. Like you, you're a demon and naturally inclined to it, but you don't care much about it."

"That's because I got you to do all the magicky stuff", Pat shrugged, "plus, before I met you, I never had much reason to learn about it or something, I always got along well without it."

"It's strange that as an assassin, you lived a much less dangerous life than you do now here in Sunnydale", the redhead giggled in reply, making her girlfriend chuckle as well when she realized that this was true; afterwards, the two beamed at each other, quickly sharing an innocent kiss before the elevator doors opened and allowed them to leave, the couple stepping out of the apartment building half a minute later and making their way to the Summers' house, both of them knowing that Dawn was already eagerly waiting for their arrival.


	5. Chapter 5

Before they left for the cemetery, Buffy lectured her sister on the dangers of patrol once more, despite the fact that she had done just this every single night the couple had taken Dawn along so far and the teenager knew the words by heart now; then, the Slayer also let her friends know that she'd be fit to take over again in the next evening, making them both nod before they promised they'd take good care of Dawn, finally allowed to leave for the cemetery afterwards.

"God", the teenager mumbled as they walked away from the house, throwing a poisonous look at the now closed front door, "if she gives me this lecture one more time, I'll say it along with her. I already thought she'd never let us go!"

"She's just worried", Pat shrugged, briefly feeling as if she told Dawn that every time she went on patrol with them, "don't hold that against her."

"It gets kinda annoying though", the teenager muttered in reply, rolling her eyes when the demon smirked and reached over to tousle her hair, then lit up a cigarette before she grasped Willow's free hand with hers, asking her if she was alright – the witch had been strangely quiet ever since they had left the apartment building.

"I'm fine", the redhead reassured her at once, giving her a smile to underline her own words, "just a bit tired. College's been so stressful lately…"

"I can't wait to go to college", Dawn beamed before Pat had a chance to reply, sounding so happy that it made both Willow and the demon smile as well, "it'll be so much fun!"

"It can be quite stressful", the witch warned her in reply, "but yeah, it's fun too."

"You should discuss the hardships and fun of college later", Pat threw in, gesturing at the cemetery gate on the other side of the street, "because we're here."

Clearly eager to get going, Dawn reached to remove her stake from the inside pocket of her jacket; the demon stopped her though, suggesting that Willow and she should go first and attract the vampires with their bright clothing, pointing out that a stake in her hand would make them much less tasty to the fanged uglies waiting for them.

"Good point", the teenager had to admit, leaving the stake where it was; Pat promised them that she wouldn't let them out of her sight, then fell back as they continued walking, chatting eagerly, giving their best to appear as just two random girls who had chosen the cemetery for a nightly walk. Sometimes, Willow wondered if the intelligence of those who had been turned dropped after they had crawled out of their fresh graves; after all, by now, everyone in Sunnydale surely had to know about the things going on here, and still vampires attacked people who wandered cemeteries at night, clearly never considering the fact that one of them might be the Slayer, just waiting for them to jump her.

Shrugging those thoughts off, she briefly glanced over her shoulder, smiling when she spotted her girlfriend lurking in the shadows behind Dawn and her; then, she focused on the teenager again, keeping up the mindless small talk so they'd seem unobtrusive, making sure she wouldn't talk too loud though, not wanting to miss the typical noises of a vampire digging him- or herself out of the grave.

Not even ten minutes later, those noises came up in the distance, making both Dawn and her stop walking momentarily; they exchanged a look, then moved on a bit faster, the teenager reaching for her jacket, checking if the stake was still there and briefly feeling relieved when she could feel the wooden object sitting securely in the pocket. It didn't take long until they reached the grave, where the vampire just had finished getting out; it was a female this time, momentarily looking confused, then snarling and baring unsettlingly sharp fangs when she spotted the two girls.

"Don't you know it's dangerous to walk the cemeteries at night?" she asked, her snarl turning into a grim smile while she took a step closer to the two; moments later, she was flung backwards and into a nearby tree, a low grunt escaping her as her back connected with the wood.

Stunned, all Dawn could do was stare at Willow as the witch lowered her hand, a slightly unsettling smirk on her face; she looked at the teenager beside her briefly, then made a quick gesture with her hands, Dawn letting out a small shriek when the stake floated out of her pocket and hung in the air for a moment – before the witch flickered her fingers and the stake shot through the air, burying itself deep in the vampire's chest seconds later.

The vampire still had the time to let out a shriek of pain, then she vanished into the dust; behind them, Dawn could hear Pat's footsteps as the demon came running up to them, clearly surprised as well about what she just had witnessed.

"Why am I even coming along?" she demanded to know, sounding half shocked and half impressed, "wow, Sweetie, that was amazing!"

"I know", Willow gave back, turning to look at her and giving her a chance to see that slightly unsettling smile as well; clearly, she had expected it as little as Dawn, since her own smile faded slightly, worry replacing the surprise in her good eye.

"Are you alright?" she cautiously asked, Willow's smile widening in reply, not really looking less unsettling though afterwards.

"Sure", she stated, stepping closer to the demon and clearly forgetting that Dawn was there since she placed both hands on her chest, caressing her tenderly through the fabric of her shirt, "I'm perfectly fine. Wanna go on and look for more vampires?"

"Um, sure", Pat replied after a moment, still not all too convinced that Willow really was fine – in all the time they had been together, she only had seen her smile like that once before, and that had been when she had been under Amy's control during the whole mess with her and the devil possessing her.

"Let's go then", the redhead smirked, stepping back and grasping her girlfriend's hand; after exchanging a short, but worried glance with Dawn, the taller woman nodded, then they started moving again, not needing much time until they found yet another vampire, making it clear once more that despite Buffy patrolling and slaying in Sunnydale for years now, there still was much need for her to be around and that there wouldn't be a shortage of vampires in Sunnydale anytime soon.

* * *

><p>During the rest of the patrol, Willow's behaviour became more and more unsettling for both Pat and Dawn; she handled all the vampires with her magic, throwing them through the air and staking them – or setting them on fire, something she never had done before, always claiming that she had her girlfriend to do that.<p>

By the time they finally were done and returned to their homes, the demon was seriously worried; when Willow had finished off the first vampire, she had been quite impressed, but that feeling was gone, fully replaced by worry and concern.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she demanded to know once they had dropped Dawn off at the Summers' house and had returned to their apartment, the witch once more plagued by enormous hunger and raiding the fridge while her girlfriend asked that question.

"I'm fine", she reassured the black haired woman once more, then focused on the fridge again, thus not seeing anymore how Pat frowned to herself, digging through her pockets until she found her cigarettes and lighting one of them up before she spoke on. "Well, I'm just a bit worried because, well… Usually, during patrol, you're not like that."

"I wanted to do some work too for once", the redhead gave back, removing a jar of mayonnaise from the fridge, then turning to look at her girlfriend, the jar still clutched in one hand. "Usually, you and Buffy do all the fighting", she went on when her girlfriend didn't reply, "but I thought about what you said to Dawn, about how she should fight according to her strengths and skills… And so, I thought I'd do the same."

"Good point", the demon had to agree, "but you should also keep in mind that I told Dawn to be more careful, and maybe you should keep that in mind, too. You were kinda reckless tonight, that can end badly if you can't heal your wounds the way I can."

"I know", Willow gave back, not sounding as if she fully agreed though, "but I also know what I'm doing… Trust me."

In response, Pat eyed her curiously for a moment, then simply nodded, deciding not to push this topic any further; the witch's behaviour was highly unusual, but she figured that she had her reasons for it and that asking on only would lead to an argument, something she didn't want to happen at all.

"Fine", she thus just said, a bit relieved when Willow gave her a more sincere smile as an answer, then turned her back on the taller woman to finish her snack; while she got done with that, Pat made her way back into the living room and sat down on the couch there, trying to keep the gnawing doubts that something unpleasant was going on out of her mind, without too much success though.

* * *

><p>Even though Pat still found herself unable to stop thinking about her girlfriend's weird behaviour during the patrol of the previous night, she didn't make a comment about it in the next morning, but only told the redhead to take care, making her giggle while she nodded.<p>

"Sure", she then gave back, looking at the taller woman with slight amusement over the rim of her coffee cup, "I'm just going to college, Sweetie, it's not like there's much danger there."

"Maybe not in a regular town", Pat shrugged in reply, a bit taken aback by this reaction – normally, Willow thought it was cute when she told her that, and didn't react so patronizing.

"We are in Sunnydale though", she thus added, "so you never know."

"I'll be fine", Willow reassured her, then finished her breakfast and told her girlfriend when she'd be home; afterwards, they shared a brief kiss before the redhead left, Pat getting up and making her way to the phone the moment the door had fallen close behind her. Hoping that she'd still catch Buffy at home, she dialled the number of her house; to her relief, it was the Slayer who took the call, sounding slightly stressed though, making the demon wonder if she had managed to call just a moment before Buffy had wanted to leave for college as well.

"I'm gonna make it quick", she stated without introducing herself, figuring that Buffy would know who she was anyway, "keep an eye on Willow when you have classes together, alright?"

"Alright", the Slayer agreed at once, to the demon's relief not asking any questions; this made her wonder briefly if she had noticed Willow's odd behaviour as well or if by now, she was trusting her so much that she simply figured she had her reasons, then decided it didn't matter – the only important thing was that Buffy would keep an eye at the witch.

"I'll tell you if she does anything odd", the Slayer now added, prompting Pat to thank her before she told her she didn't want to steal any more of her time; Buffy let out a relieved sigh in reply, making the demon smirk to herself before she said goodbye and hung up, letting out a heavy breath afterwards.

It didn't feel right to make her girlfriend's best friend spy on her during the time she couldn't be around, but on the other hand, she also knew that something decidedly weird was going on with Willow; again, she started racking her brain about what might be the cause of this, asking herself moments later if Giles by now maybe had been able to find something out. Deciding that going there and asking him was as good as just sitting around at the apartment and waiting for him to call, the black haired woman quickly retrieved her cigarettes and wallet from the living room table, then moved on to the anteroom where she hurriedly put on her shoes and jacket, leaving the apartment a minute later.


	6. Chapter 6

"You know, you just could have called", Giles gently reprimanded Pat half an hour later, after offering her a seat and a cup of tea anyway; she had taken the seat, but had declined the tea, giving the Watcher a thankful look when he asked if she wanted coffee instead.

"Did you find anything so far?" she asked the moment he had returned with a cup of the hot beverage from the kitchen; one small sip was enough to let her notice that it was instant coffee, but she didn't mind it much, figuring that it was better than drinking tea or water.

"Unfortunately, a number of possibilities", the Watcher sighed out in reply, signalling his distress by taking off his glasses, "some spells which might have this particular effect, as I told you already, and there are also some potions…"

"But she'd notice if she'd drink something like that, right?" Pat frowned, not surprised when Giles nodded, putting his glasses back on before he continued. "So, it's most likely that her behaviour has been caused by a spell, and I'm working on several ways to find out if this is true and, if yes, which spell was used and how we can undo it. Did her behaviour change any further?"

"Kinda", Pat gave back, sighing slightly before she explained Willow's strange, reckless behaviour during previous night's patrol; Giles listened intently, nodding from time to time, giving the demon a thoughtful look when she finished.

"This surely is connected to whatever spell is affecting her", he then stated, not really telling her anything new though. "I'll take this into consideration during my research…"

"I just hope we figure out quickly what is going on", Pat sighed out, not sure why she told Giles about this – they never had been particularly close after all, they had gotten along more or less well most of the time, but she never had grown as close to him as he was to Buffy, Willow and Xander.

"I just don't want her to get hurt", she still added, holding back the urge to sigh for a third time, "but if she keeps it up like that, exactly that will happen sooner or later."

"You might unfortunately be right about this", Giles had to agree to his obvious dismay, "so I'll give my best to find out what is going on as fast as possible. Can you keep her safe until then?"

"I'll try", Pat mumbled, not all too happy that she had to give this answer – just a few days ago, she would have replied "Sure", without thinking about it, but now, she couldn't be so convinced about this anymore. "Buffy's keeping an eye on her while they're at college", she added after a moment, "so if you have no other plans, I can help you with the research until she gets back…"

"That'd be helpful, yes", Giles gave back, eying the demon with slight surprise – after all, she usually tried to get out of being part of the research team, and that she even offered her help voluntarily this time showed just how much all of this was bothering her. "Here", he went on after a second, getting up and moving to the bookshelf, grabbing one of the thicker volumes, "I was planning to go through this, it might have some useful information… I'll go make more tea – and coffee – and then I'll join you."

"Uh-huh", Pat sighed out in agreement, placing the thick book on the table in front of her and opening it, grimacing at the tiny print; Giles gave her a short, unnoticed smirk, then vanished into the kitchen to make some more tea and coffee, preparing everything Pat and he would need for the upcoming research session.

* * *

><p>While the Watcher and the demon were busy with their books, Buffy and Willow shared one of their classes at college; it bothered the Slayer a bit that she couldn't be with her best friend during all classes, after the mysterious phone call she had received from Pat, but on the other hand, she couldn't detect any unusual behaviour from Willow, the redhead just being her usual self.<p>

Still she knew that the demon wouldn't ask her to keep an eye on her girlfriend with no reason; thus, she observed the witch much more closely than usual, using the break after the class they had shared to quickly text Pat and let her know that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Not even half a minute later, the short response came, only consisting of "Ok thanks"; this didn't surprise Buffy, since by now, she knew the demon well enough to know that she hated texting, always complaining that the buttons of her cell phone were too small for her fingers and that it took her ages to type in her responses.

Smirking to herself, the blonde put the phone back into her pocket, nodding when Willow asked her if they'd meet up for lunch; nodding, she gave her best friend a smile, then they parted ways, Buffy looking over her shoulder once as the redhead walked away from her, once more asking herself if anything unpleasant really was going on – or if Pat was just being too concerned or maybe even a bit paranoid, a thought she quickly shrugged off though, knowing that in Sunnydale, unusual behaviour hardly ever meant something good.

* * *

><p>Since none of them wanted Willow to find about the research they had been doing, Pat made sure to be back at their apartment before the redhead would come home from college; to her dismay, she hadn't found anything interesting in the book Giles had given her, and neither had the Watcher with the volume he had been using himself, but he at least had promised her that he'd keep looking and that he wasn't planning to give up anytime soon.<p>

This was at least calming her down enough to allow her to behave normally when Willow came home fifteen minutes after the black haired woman had returned to the apartment; the redhead didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss when Pat asked her how her day had been, listening intently to the answer, raising an eyebrow in surprise when after the report of how her day had been – luckily, it apparently had been quite the peaceful one – Willow asked if she felt like going to the Bronze for drinks later.

"It's been a while since we've been there", she explained at the questioning look of her girlfriend, "I already asked Buffy after college and she said she'd come, too. Come on, it'll be nice and fun!"

"Sure", the demon agreed after a second, "but don't you have one of those stressful exams tomorrow…?"

"Yeah, but I studied enough for that", Willow shrugged in reply, once more unknowingly making it quite clear to her girlfriend that something wasn't quite alright with her – she never would have said something like this before all those strange changes had started happening to her.

"Plus", the witch now went on, smiling up at the taller woman while she stepped closer to her and moved both arms up around her neck, "you'll make sure we won't stay too long, right? You'll look out for me."

Before the demon had a chance to reply – and confirm – Willow had pulled her down and kept her quiet with a kiss; afterwards, she finally could mumble a quick agreement, even though the surprisingly passionate kiss had put her in the mood for something quite different.

"Great", Willow smiled, a sparkle in her eyes which showed that her mood was resembling the demon's, "I told Buffy we'll meet there at nine… so we still have some time until then."

"I think I know what you're planning to do with that time", Pat gave back, for the moment forgetting her worries as Willow smiled up at her and nodded, one of her hands sliding down to her backside; for a moment, her fingers came to a rest there, then her hand moved on, grasping the one of the taller woman, her smile widening as she pulled her over to the couch, not even bothering with going to the bedroom, all worries and concerns blown out of the demon's mind just a few minutes later.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, the gang met up at the Bronze, as it had been suggested by Willow; to the witch's obvious delight, the whole gang was there, Xander, Anya and Dawn joining in on the fun, the presence of the teenager surprising everyone else – after all, the next day was a school day, and usually, Buffy didn't like her sister to go out when she had to get up for school in the next day.<p>

"I figured we won't stay that long", the Slayer shrugged when she noticed the questioning looks of her friends, "and she was whining at me about coming along, so…"

"I was not whining", Dawn protested, giving her an annoying look and crossing her arms over her chest, "you were being stubborn about it!"

"Now, now", Willow was the one to cut in before Buffy had a chance to reply, "no fighting tonight, we're here to have fun! Who wants a beer?"

"I do", Xander and Anya answered in perfect unison, beaming at each other afterwards; after a moment, Buffy decided that she wanted one as well, then gave Dawn a strict look, prompting the teenager to reassure Willow that alcohol was icky and that she'd rather have coke. Nodding, Willow got up from her seat, giving Pat a pleading look; that was enough to make the demon rise as well, and together, they made their way to the bar, where Willow ordered the beers and the one coke, then turned to look up at her girlfriend while she waited for the barkeeper to finish pouring the drinks.

"I'm so glad we're all here", she told the taller woman, her eyes sparkling as if to underline her words, "it's really been quite some time since the whole gang was here, together, having fun…"

"That's true", Pat had to admit after thinking about this for a few moments – she often had been here with just Willow, or with Buffy and Willow, but it had been several weeks since they all had come here together, the whole Scooby gang sans Giles, since the Watcher hardly ever felt like joining them in "this noisy place", as he called it.

"Let's hope nothing will happen to ruin that night", she added after another second, "that tends to happen whenever we just want to have fun."

"I know", the redhead sighed, turning back to the bar to see how far their drinks were, smiling again when she saw that she had returned her attention to the barkeeper just in time he poured the last beer. Thanking him, she quickly removed her wallet from the small handbag she used for going out, finding the right amount – including a rather generous tip – and paying for the drinks before she handed three of them to her girlfriend, then took the remaining three herself, hoping she wouldn't drop any as she carefully made her way back to the table with Pat right behind her.

To her relief, they both made it back to the table without spilling or even dropping any of the drinks; once the cups had been handed out, the couple sat down again, smiling at each other before Xander raised his cup for a toast, declaring his joy about being in the Bronze with all his best friends "except for the G-Man, who can't stand it to be here".

"He also can't stand it when you call him G-Man", Buffy reminded him with a smirk, "so better don't do that when he's around."

"You know I hold back then!", Xander defended himself, taking a large gulp of his beer afterwards; the others did the same, then Willow suddenly jumped up again, surprising the others with her overboarding energy.

"I want to dance!" she declared, her face falling when she looked at Pat and the demon shook her head, reminding her of the fact that the only dancing she could do without looking like a total tool was of the slow kind, something which wouldn't be very fitting, considering the rather fast-paced songs the DJ was playing.

"I wanna dance, too", Buffy quickly decided at seeing her best friend's disappointed face, getting up from her seat; she gave the demon a quick look, signalling that she'd keep an eye on the witch while they were on the dance floor, the brief signal unnoticed by Willow as she let out a happy noise and grasped her best friend's hand. Together, the two hurried off towards the dance floor; the moment he could be sure that they both were out of earshot, Xander leaned forward, his gaze now serious, focused on the demon and making her shift on her chair a bit uneasily, since he hardly ever looked at anyone from the gang that way.

"So", he spoke, still keeping his voice low so no one around would hear, "is she still behaving weirdly?"

"A bit", Pat gave back after a moment, "but her appetite seems to have gone back to normal… I guess that's something."

"All appetites?" Anya wanted to know, wriggling her eyebrows at the black haired woman suggestively and prompting her to roll her good eye before she grunted an agreement, glaring at the ex-demon when she let out a giggle and asked if this was a disappointment. Before she could come up with a snarky answer though, a shout from the dance floor distracted all of them; Pat's blood ran cold when she recognized the voice as Buffy's, the Slayer sounding highly alarmed, the two words she was crying out not helping to calm the demon down either. "Willow, no!"

Within the blink of an eye, Pat had jumped up from her seat and was rushing towards the dance floor, pushing her way through the crowd quite roughly and earning several angered outcries; since she ignored them all though, she made it to the dance floor just in time to see how Willow put her hand on the chest of a tall, muscled guy, blue fire briefly flaring between her fingertips – and then the guy flew backwards, hitting the floor with a low thud where he remained, groaning to himself.

After a quick look to make sure Pat was there, Buffy hurried to his side; not sure what to think about this situation, the demon moved to Willow in the meantime, giving her a worried look, placing one look on her shoulder, her alarm heightening when she felt the witch trembling beneath her touch.

"What happened?" she demanded to know, simultaneously leading her girlfriend away from the people watching, hoping that no one had seen too much, even though people were stunningly good at repressing such memories in Sunnydale.

"I'm… I'm not sure", Willow gave back, letting it happen that Pat led her outside, where they could talk in peace, without anyone eavesdropping, "we were dancing, and suddenly that guy was behind me and groped me, and then I… I used magic on him…"

"You know defending you from such assholes is my job", the demon gently reminded her, pulling her into a tender embrace, smirking when the witch muttered "Language", a small sigh escaping her afterwards, her voice filled with concern when she spoke on. "I've never done that before, you know… Even before I met you, I'd just yell at such guys or, if that didn't help, slap them, but I never used magic against them. What if someone saw it?"

"Then they'll do that repressed memory thing everyone here is so good at", Pat shrugged, "we shouldn't be worried about them. But maybe, we should be worried about you…"

For a while, Willow remained silent; then, to the demon's endless surprise, she shook her head, smiling up at the taller woman, all concern gone from her voice when she replied. "I don't think this is necessary, he just ticked me off so much and after that stressful day at college, I just kinda exploded. I'm sure it won't happen again."

"Are you sure?" Pat demanded to know, clearly not as convinced about this as Willow was; still smiling, the witch reached up to embrace her, entwining her fingers behind her neck, sounding reassuring when she replied. "Yes, I am. Now, let's go back inside, it's getting cold out here…"

For another moment, the demon looked as if she wanted to protest, still not buying the redhead's reassurance that everything was okay; then, her resistance clearly melted, since she just nodded and smiled back at Willow, the couple sharing a tender kiss before they made their way back inside, Pat's worries about her girlfriend's uncharacteristic behaviour forgotten.


	7. Chapter 7

Back inside, Willow first checked on the guy she had used her magic on, glad to see that he was fine; when he, still a bit dizzily, asked what had happened, Buffy was the one to answer, telling him that the witch simply had pushed him and that he should keep his hands to himself in the future, then sent him along, turning to give her best friend a strict look the moment he was out of earshot.

"Okay, so what was this?" she demanded to know, a bit taken aback when Willow shrugged, then smiled, a somehow malicious smile which was quite untypical for her.

"He groped me, and I defended myself", she then explained, momentarily sounding so cold that Buffy nearly took a step back, her eyes widening briefly.

"I see", she carefully gave back, making sure to choose her next words wisely, "and you of all people know that I don't have a problem with this, but… with magic? What if someone had noticed something?"

"You explained to him what happened, right?" Willow shrugged it off, clearly not all too concerned about the possibility that the guests here might discover she was a witch, "and he believed it. You know they always do here."

"Yes, they do", Buffy had to agree, forced to admit that her best friend had made a good point with those words, "but there's still no need to take such unnecessary risks. Next time this happens, let Pat or me handle it, alright? No magic in the Bronze."

"Alright", Willow agreed surprisingly quickly, then grasped the Slayer's hand and gave her a toothy smile, one which looked much more like the ones she usually showed, nothing like the malicious smirk that had been on her face just a minute ago. "But now, let's not talk about this idiot anymore", she added, giving the blonde's hand quite the hearty squeeze, "let's go back to the others, we're here to have fun after all!"

"…alright", Buffy agreed after a moment, sounding a bit surprised at hearing that agreement coming from herself; before she could ponder this further though, and ask herself why she had given in so quickly, Willow started pulling her back to the table, all her doubts vanishing into nothingness when the redhead's hand tightened on hers once more.

She only let go of her when they had reached the table; instead of taking the seat again she had used before she had gone to dance, Willow decided to sit down on her girlfriend's lap, briefly surprising the demon – after all, they usually held back with showing their relationship so blatantly in public, limiting themselves to rather quick and innocent kisses after several quite nasty remarks they had heard from various guests at the Bronze, people Pat normally dealt with rather effectively, but it still upset the redhead nonetheless to have such words directed at her.

"I'm not too heavy, am I?" Willow smirked at the surprised look of her girlfriend, immediately making the demon shake her head; the redhead smiled at the taller woman for another moment, then bent down to kiss her quite deeply, the eyes of the others nearly popping out of their heads at the sight, all of them well aware of the "No tongues" policy Willow had established for going out a while ago, a policy she clearly now had thrown out the window.

"What is going on?" Xander whispered, unable to take his eyes off the kissing couple; at his left, Anya just shrugged, staring quite dumbstruck as well, while at his right, Buffy cleared her throat, sounding as stunned as her two friends looked when she replied. "Not sure, but what I am sure about is that Pat surely loves that."

"Not that I can blame her", Anya commented, finally managing to tear her gaze away from the couple and focusing on her beer again, taking a large gulp from it, looking up from the cup just in time to see Willow pull back from the kiss, her face visibly flushed and her breath a bit quicker than it had been before.

"I thought you don't wanna do that in public anymore", Pat brought out, clearly out of breath as well; with her eyes sparkling, Willow shrugged, taking the black haired woman's face in her hands afterwards while she bent closer again, her breath warm on the demon's cheeks as she responded. "Screw those idiots who think they need to make stupid comments. You don't mind, do you?"

"You know I don't", the demon hoarsely reassured her, then took the lead by pulling her down for another kiss; obviously, their friends were forgotten for the moment, along with the people around them, and if anyone did make any nasty comments, neither Pat nor Willow heard them, too busy with each other to notice or to care.

* * *

><p>"That was fun, wasn't it?" Willow demanded to know another two hours later, as she entered the apartment again; right behind her, Pat nodded her agreement, still a bit surprised about the passion her girlfriend had shown at the club – after the first unexpected, but pleasant deep kiss, they hadn't done much else than kissing, barely paying attention to their friends anymore.<p>

"I hope they won't mind that we were so busy with each other", the demon now voiced those thoughts, smirking when Willow giggled and shrugged, taking off her shoes and jacket before she stepped closer to her girlfriend and pulled her into an embrace, a mischief sparkle in her eyes when she replied. "I doubt they did… Xander and Anya shouldn't, they do that all the time, too, and Buffy got used to that thanks to them."

"And Dawn didn't even notice", Pat added, chuckling to herself as she thought of the classmate the teenager had been talking to from the moment she had been given her drink until Buffy had gained her attention and had told her that it was time to go home.

"She really fancies that guy", the black haired woman thus added, making the witch smile and nod – before her stomach grumbled audibly, prompting her to blush while Pat let out another chuckle, raising an eyebrow at the redhead afterwards.

"Hungry, I take it", she then teased, Willow's blush deepening in reply; she cleared her throat, then nodded, her facial colour slowly returning to normal as she beamed up at her girlfriend.

"Come to the kitchen with me?" she then asked, the demon nodding her agreement; they took the time to share a this time rather chaste kiss, then moved from the hallway to the kitchen where Willow started preparing a snack for herself while Pat leaned against the counter, smoking a cigarette and watching her, trying to figure out if she should worry about the behaviour Willow had displayed earlier that night – or if she just was being paranoid, reading too much into events which could be explained with perfectly ordinary reasons.

* * *

><p>In the next morning, Giles called Pat's cell phone ten minutes after Willow had left for college; this made the demon wonder if the Watcher knew her girlfriend's schedule by heart or if it just had been a lucky guess, a question she forgot within the blink of an eye though when Giles gave her the reason for his call.<p>

"I think I found something which might be helpful", he let her know, making her shift on her seat as she waited for him to get to the point, "it's a potion, showing if a spell has been put on the drinker after it has been swallowed."

"Great", Pat sighed out, clearly relieved, once more thinking about the strange behaviour Willow had shown the previous evening; now that the witch was gone, the stuff she had done seemed highly out of character again, and the demon barely could believe that she just had shrugged it off like that.

"Now all we have to do is make her drink it", she added after a few moments of thoughtful silence, "does it taste bad?"

"I don't know", Giles gave back, clearly taken aback by that question, "I never had to drink it before. Judging from the ingredients though, it should taste quite sweet."

"Well that's something", Pat mumbled, her mind already running wild as she tried to figure out how she could get Willow to drink the stuff; deception to make her do so was out of question, but judging from the witch's behaviour lately, it might be harder than expected to convince her of drinking the potion.

"We should just talk to her", Giles suggested, clearly on her train of thought as well, "tell her about our worries. If the spell didn't change her personality completely, assuming that there is a spell, this should be enough to make her see reason and convince her to drink the potion."

"I hope so", Pat sighed out, then reassured Giles that it wouldn't be a problem when he asked her if she should come to his place with Willow once she was back home; clearly pleased to hear this, the Watcher promised her he'd call the others so they'd be there as well, then said his goodbye to do just that, Pat returning the words before she hung up, a small sigh escaping her.

Now that there was a way to find out if a spell really had been put on her girlfriend, she was getting nervous, asking herself what they'd do if they would find out that there really was some magic at work and responsible for Willow's strange behaviour; after all, the redhead was the most skilled witch of their group, the abilities of Giles and Anya mediocre at best, and her own rather rusty, thanks to the fact that so far, Willow had done all the spells and even before that, the demon hardly ever had seen a reason to use magic, even though she was naturally inclined to do so, thanks to her nature.

"Well", she mumbled to herself, lightning up a cigarette before she got up from her seat and made her way into the kitchen, "if there really is a spell on her, she'll want it gone too, I assume, so she hopefully will help then."

Realizing that she was talking to herself and that this made her look quite odd, Pat forced herself to shut up and shook her head; still feeling dismayed despite the reassuring words she had told herself, she opened the fridge and found a cold can of coke there, quickly opening it and gulping half of it down with a few big swallows.

Not bothering to hold back a burp, since no one was around to hear it anyway, she belched quite loudly, then returned to the living room and made herself comfortable on the couch there; a quick glance at her watch showed her that she still had several hours until Willow would come back home, and after thinking about what to do during that time for a while, she picked up one of her books, lying down on the couch after opening it and somehow managing to focus on the plot and the characters, despite her nervousness and her worries about what they might do if someone really had put such a personality-changing spell on her girlfriend.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: urgh, I royally messed up and somehow managed to delete most of the chapters accidentally, so I had to upload them again... Sorry for any inconvenience I might have caused with this :-/

* * *

><p>To the demon's relief, Willow agreed on going to Giles' place with her girlfriend, not even asking why; she just wanted to know if she had time to eat something before they'd leave, clearly happy when Pat told her it was no problem and hurriedly making her way into the kitchen, fixing herself a rather big sandwich there, the demon watching her with fresh concern showing on her face – for a while, she had thought that at least the redhead's appetite about food was back to normal, but seeing her munch down that thick snack showed her that this wasn't the case.<p>

"Did you have lunch at the college?" the black haired woman demanded to know after just watching her eat in silence for a while, surprise filling her when Willow nodded, even blushing a bit, taking the time to swallow the huge bite she had taken from the sandwich before she answered. "Quite the big one, actually. Must have been all the dancing yesterday at the Bronze, and the magic."

"Yeah", Pat mumbled, frowning, "must have been that." Now frowning as well, Willow looked at her for a few moments – before she asked the question the demon had been dreading, and didn't really want to answer as long as she wasn't at Giles' place with the witch, and with the others around to help.

"What is it?" the redhead demanded to know, either not noticing her girlfriend's discomfort or deciding to ignore it, "something's bothering you, what is it?"

"You", Pat sighed in reply, hurriedly speaking on when Willow's face fell and hurt showed in her features. "No no, not like that", she explained, quickly moving closer to the witch and tenderly taking her into her arms, "I'm just worried… You have to admit that your eating habits changed kinda drastically lately, and so did, um, well, your other appetites… Plus, you've become kinda reckless about using magic as well, like yesterday, in the Bronze…"

"So you think something's wrong with me?" Willow demanded to know, not sure if she should be touched about her girlfriend noticing such things or angry about the fact that until now, the demon hadn't said a thing.

"Not just me", Pat had to admit in rely, figuring that, if she already was talking about it, she could tell her loved one everything, "the others noticed it too. Actually, we're afraid that someone put a spell on you, causing all of this, so, Giles made a potion to find out if you're under some magical influence."

"I see", Willow replied, her voice strangely calm; she looked down on the sandwich she still was holding, then put it aside, her voice growing cold when she spoke on. "And when did you plan to tell me this?"

"Today", Pat reassured her, hoping that this wouldn't end in a fight – they hardly ever had fights, but if they did, it always bothered the demon endlessly. "At Giles' place. Please don't be mad, Sweetie, we're all just worried about you…"

"And that's why you talk about me behind my back?" Willow demanded to know in reply, now giving her a glare so intense and angry that she almost took a step back. "Strange way to show your worry. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"We wanted to be sure we're not overreacting", the demon tried to explain, asking herself where this was coming from – even during the few fights they had had, Willow never had looked at her like that before or had spoken in such a cold, uncaring voice.

"You're sure of that now?" the redhead wanted to know, moving out of the embrace so she could cross her arms over her chest. "You know now something's wrong with me?"

"Come on", Pat tried reason in reply, "you have to admit that all of this is weird! You eat more than I do even after demoning out, and you know how high my appetite gets then, plus the magic use in public and the way you behaved during patrol… That's not you, Sweetie!"

"Maybe it is", Willow snapped, now clearly getting angry, something the demon couldn't quite follow, "maybe I changed. Did you ever consider that? Instead of thinking that I'm under a spell? I would notice if I am, being such a powerful witch, right?"

"Apparently not", Pat gave back, trying to control her temper, but unable to keep herself from getting annoyed as well now, the emotion clearly showing through her gaze and voice. "Or you would have noticed that you did change, and I'm afraid it wasn't as voluntarily as you try to make yourself believe."

"You just can't handle it that I'm taking care of myself now", Willow accused in reply, the demon clearly taken aback by those words, since all she could do in reply was stare at the smaller woman, prompting her to go on after a moment. "You always liked it when you could protect me, didn't you? And now that I can do that myself… You don't like that. That's it, isn't it?"

"No!" Pat finally regained her ability to speak, "that's a load of bullshit, and you know it! If you're so sure that you're not under some kind of spell, come to Giles' place with me and drink that potion, and if we are wrong, and there's no magical influence, I'll never mention this again."

"…fine", Willow agreed after thinking about this for a few moments, "let's go then. Now." With those words, she threw the remains of her sandwich into the trash, then marched past the stunned demon; it took Pat a second to snap out of it, but once she had, she quickly hurried after her girlfriend, her mind running wild as she tried to figure out how the conversation had ended up that way – and if this was yet another sign that something was clearly wrong with the witch, the thought troubling her more than she would have thought possible.

* * *

><p>The moment Willow entered Giles' house, everyone could see that she was highly pissed off; the Watcher gave her a worried look while Buffy almost automatically rose from her seat, a questioning expression on her face, Pat raising her hands behind the witch and shrugging helplessly in reply.<p>

"So", Willow started once she had taken off her jacket and shoes, "I hear you all think that there's something wrong with me and that you, Giles, brewed up one of your famous potions to find out if that's true. So why don't you give me the stuff and I'll gulp it down, and then this will be settled?"

Behind her, Pat shrugged again when Giles raised an eyebrow at her; the Watcher held her gaze for a moment longer, then cleared his throat and nodded, getting up from his seat and making his way into the kitchen without another word.

"Willow, are you okay?" Buffy unnecessarily asked, nearly taking a step back when the witch looked at her, with such anger in her eyes that momentarily, Buffy was eerily reminded of the horrible times when her best friend had been out for revenge, fuelled by grief and a desire for vengeance so big that it almost had been insanity.

"Oh, I don't know", the redhead now replied, her voice full of acid, "my friends all seem to think I have lost my mind, but other than that, I'm fine!"

"We don't think that", Xander was the first one to speak up, "we're just worried. You did behave kind of out of character the last few days."

"Whatever", Willow muttered, throwing an impatient look at the kitchen; uncomfortable silence filled the room while they all waited for Giles to come back, their relief when he finally did so clearly showing through their expressions.

"Here", the Watcher stated, holding a glass filled with light green liquid out to the witch, "I added some honey to make it sweeter, so it won't taste horrible."

"Thanks", the redhead replied sarcastically, taking the glass from him and emptying it with a few big gulps; while she did so, the Brit explained how the potion would work, letting the others know that, if Willow really was under a spell, a glow the colour of the potion would start surrounding her within minutes after she had swallowed the last drop.

Without even fully noticing that she was holding her breath, Pat closely watched her girlfriend finish the potion, waiting for the glow to appear; covering her mouth to stifle a burp, Willow handed the glass back to Giles, then crossed her arms over her chest, a slightly triumphant smirk forming on her face when five minutes later, nothing had happened. By now breathing again, the demon couldn't help herself, but just had to stare at her girlfriend – she had been so sure that some kind of magic could be blamed for the redhead's strange behaviour, but if Giles hadn't messed up the potion, there was no sign of a spell on her.

"See?" the witch now found it necessary to point out the lack of any green glow, "no spells on me. As I said. Now, can we stop talking about how I've gone insane and accept that I just changed?"

"No one said you've gone insane", Pat protested, the glare Willow shot in her reaction in reply making her gulp audibly; still, she spoke on, clearly not willing to give up so fast. "We're all just worried about you", she tried to explain, to her dismay obviously not getting through to her girlfriend, since the witch just gave her another glare.

"Well, you don't have to be", she stated, "because, as I said, everything's just fine. Now, is there anything else you want to accuse me of, or can I go home?"

"Um, sure", Buffy gave back, a bit startled by that behaviour as well, "there's nothing else going on… But maybe—"

Before she could say what maybe should happen or should be done, the redhead had turned and marched off, slamming the door close behind her; stunned, they all looked after her for a few moments – before, without another word, Pat hurried after her, leaving the rest behind trying to figure out what just had happened.

* * *

><p>Even though she had followed Willow just a few seconds after the redhead's departure, the witch was nowhere to be seen when Pat stepped outside; frowning, the demon moved from the front door to the sidewalk, her frown deepening when she still couldn't spot her girlfriend.<p>

"Willow?" she called out, feeling a bit stupid, the feeling vanishing though when no response came, only to be replaced by worry; not sure what to do, the demon looked left and right, trying to figure out where the redhead had vanished to so quickly, several unpleasant possibilities running through her mind, ranging from magical departure to some bad guy kidnapping her, even though she had to admit that this last one was highly unlikely to happen.

The sound of the front door opening once more distracted her from those unpleasant thoughts, and upon turning around, she found herself looking at Buffy, the Slayer jogging up to her, clearly worried as well when she couldn't spot Willow anywhere.

"Where'd she go?" she demanded to know, a question which seemed rather stupid to the demon – after all, if she'd known where Willow had gone, she would be there now, try to calm the redhead down and convince her that none of them thought she had lost her mind.

"I don't know", she answered, holding back a snarky remark about how this had been quite the stupid question, "she just… vanished. Do you think she did some spell or something?"

"I don't know", Buffy gave back, looking up and down the sidewalk as well, as if she could just make the redhead appear by looking hard enough, "I know that she does know some teleportation spells, but as far as I remember, those only work on others… Plus, they are quite straining, she used on Glory back then when we had that whole trouble with her and it gave her a nosebleed and she had a headache for days."

"What a calming thought", Pat mumbled, quickly finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up afterwards, once more looking left and right after taking the first drag, to her dismay still not spotting the witch anywhere though.

"Maybe she got better at it", Buffy tried to calm her down, without too much success though, "or maybe she just left really fast… But where would she go?"

"I don't think she really went home", Pat sighed after thinking about this for a moment, taking another drag of her cigarette before she spoke on. "I guess I know her well enough by now to figure out that she'll expect us to go looking for her after that dramatic exit, and we'd naturally go there first, so…"

"The campus, maybe?" Buffy guessed after a moment during which she had pondered if the demon could be right with her assumption and had came to the conclusion that she probably was, "it's big, and she has a few favourite places there, like the library…"

"If you know that this is her favourite place, she won't be there if she doesn't want to be found", Pat pointed out a capital flaw in the Slayer's plan, making the blonde frown when she realized that this was quite a good point.

"You think she won't want us to find her?" she asked after another moment, the demon letting out a sigh before she shrugged, sounding so dismayed when she replied that Buffy momentarily felt the need to step closer to her and hug her.

"I guess so", the taller woman stated, another drag of her cigarette following before she went on. "She was quite angry after all, actually, I've hardly ever seen her so angry before…"

"That was quite out of character", Buffy muttered, replaying the scene in front of her inner eye, "so even if there isn't a spell on her – assuming that Giles made the potion correctly, which I'm quite sure about, he's good at that stuff – there's still something wrong with her, but as long as we can't find her…"

"… we won't be able to figure it out", Pat finished for her, another sigh following her words. "We should look for her", she then added, finishing her cigarette and throwing it on the sidewalk, putting it out by stepping on it, "maybe one of us will be lucky and find her, even if she doesn't want us to."

"Good idea", Buffy agreed, "I'll go and get the others, you got your phone with you, right?"

"Yup", Pat reassured her in reply, patting the pocket where she kept said phone as if to underline her words; Buffy nodded, then gave her a reassuring smile, briefly touching her arm as she spoke up. "Try not to be too worried, okay? We'll find her, I'm sure of it…"

"I'll try", the demon gave back, smiling weakly; the Slayer returned the smile a bit more heartily, then went back inside to get the other members of the gang while Pat lit up another cigarette, another sigh escaping her as she tried to figure out where her girlfriend had gone – and if they'd be able to find her, and what might happen if they wouldn't succeed.


	9. Chapter 9

Even though they all had been looking for hours, there was no trace of Willow, the worry of every member of the Scooby gang growing with every hour that passed; finally though, they had to admit defeat, despite their by now high concern, all of them knowing that it wouldn't do much good to search the town at night – and that for most of them, it was far too dangerous, anyway.

"Call me if anything happens, alright?" Buffy almost ordered Pat, back at Giles' house, where they all had met before they'd call it a night and go home, making the demon nod; the miserable expression on her face once more invoked the urge to hug her within the Slayer, and this time, she gave in to it, patting the taller woman's back reassuringly and mumbling that they'd find Willow soon, no matter where she had gone.

"I'm sure she's okay", she added after she had pulled back from the embrace, "she's just upset. Or maybe she's already at the apartment, waiting for you."

"I doubt it, but I hope so", Pat sighed out as an answer, then nodded when Buffy told her once more to call her, should anything come up, no matter what time it might be; she thanked the others for helping with the search, then left Giles' house, her mood on the lowest possible point as she made her way back to the apartment building.

Already from the sidewalk, she could see that the windows of the apartment she shared with Willow were dark, a heavy sigh escaping her at the sight; telling herself that she shouldn't freak out about this, and that everything would be alright, just as Buffy had told her, she made her way to the second floor and into the apartment, immediately moving on to the kitchen there and helping herself to one of the beers from the fridge.

Knowing that she wouldn't get much sleep that night, not as long as she didn't have an idea where Willow was and if she was fine, Pat made her way back to the living room and sat down on the couch there, opening the beer before she switched on the TV and started zapping through the programs, not sure if she'd find anything which would distract her from her worries.

Finally, she settled for a rather mindless comedy movie, figuring that it was better than just sitting here in silence; just as she had thought, she found it hard to concentrate on the movie though, glancing at the hallway which led to the apartment every other minute, willing the sound of the key turning in the lock to come up, the minutes ticking by awfully slowly as she sat there and waited for her girlfriend to finally come back to her.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Pat wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep, but the sound of the key finally turning in the lock jerked her awake, the demon momentarily feeling confused as she sat up on the couch, then realizing that she had drifted off into slumber in the living room, her heart performing an excited leap in her chest when she heard the sounds of Willow taking off her shoes and jackets in the hallway.<p>

Hurriedly, she switched off the TV, then almost jumped up from the couch and made her way to the hall, her relief about the witch's return immediately replaced by concern again when she saw the tear streaked face of her girlfriend and her troubled expression.

"I'm sorry", Willow brought out before she had the chance to say anything, fresh tears filling her eyes, "you were all right… There's something wrong with me and I don't know what's going on anymore…"

"What happened? Where you have been?" the demon demanded to know in reply, then realized that maybe, it wasn't the best idea to talk in the hallway; thus, she carefully put one arm around Willow's shoulders and started to lead her into the living room, only to end up dead in her tracks, startled, when the redhead suddenly let out a pained groan and doubled over, clutching at her stomach with both hands.

"What's wrong?" the demon demanded to know, alarmed; all Willow could do in reply was to let out another groan as a fresh wave of pain ran through her, worse than all the other cramps she had experienced before. Her knees buckled when the pain intensified even more, and she would have fallen if her girlfriend hadn't reacted quickly, catching her just in time, her alarm now turned into high concern; still she held back the urge to ask questions, but merely hurried back into the living room, carefully lowering the witch on the couch there.

"Oh God, this hurts so bad", Willow brought out between clenched teeth, convulsing with pain; feeling awfully helpless and not having an idea how to help, all Pat could think about was reaching out and grasping her hand, momentarily wincing when the redhead squeezed her fingers with surprising strength as a fresh wave of pain surged through her.

"It's never been so bad before", she then panted out, beads of sweat forming on her brow and slowly rolling down her cheeks, "or that long…"

This made the taller woman wonder for a second if her girlfriend had experienced such pains before, and why she hadn't told her; then, she put those thoughts aside for now, focusing on helping the redhead as much as she could, moving her free hand to caress her cheek tenderly, hoping that the touch would help to soothe her a bit.

Finally, to the obvious and great relief of the witch, the pain started to fade again, as it had the other times this had happened to her; once she could be sure it wouldn't come back all of a sudden, she dared to sit up slowly, one hand still resting on her stomach while Pat kept clutching the other one.

"Stomach cramp", she mumbled, suddenly not able to look at her girlfriend's face anymore as she realized that now, she had to come clean – after the first words she had said when she had came back home, there was no way she could convince her that everything was fine, and after the things that had happened during the last few hours, she couldn't even convince herself of that anymore, anyway. "I've been having those lately…"

"I'd say it's not surprising, seeing how much you've been eating", Pat sighed, giving her hand a tender squeeze, "but that's not all, is it."

Even though it wasn't a question, but a statement, Willow shook her head in reply, a small sigh escaping her afterwards, her gaze moving back up and focusing on the taller woman's face as she replied. "No, it's not… The potion was done correctly, there's no spell on me, but something else is wrong and I don't know what it is…"

"What happened while you were out?" Pat demanded to know in reply, figuring that it must have been something quite drastic if it had made the witch realize that something indeed was off with her, after how insistent she had been that she was fine at Giles' home.

"It was worse than in the Bronze", Willow mumbled after thinking about it for a moment, "at first, I was just walking around aimlessly, I was so angry because of the potion thing and everything… Then, this girl called out to me, I think she wanted to ask for the time or the way or something and I… I dunno, I was startled and then I got so angry at her for startling me like that and I…"

"You used magic against her, like you did at the Bronze", Pat finished the sentence when the witch fell silent, making her nod after a moment, her shame about this behaviour clearly visible through her features.

"I couldn't help myself", she then added, as if to justify herself, even though she only could see worry and concern on her girlfriend's face and not even the slightest hint of dismay or contempt about what she had done.

"The girl's fine, thank God", she went on after another second, "but, as you can imagine, she was quite freaked out… And so was I, I mean, I've never been such a choleric, but… I got so angry…"

"If it's not a spell, what else could it be?" Pat asked in reply, the witch having to admit that she had no idea, shrugging helplessly as an answer. "Well, it has to be something", the demon mumbled after a moment of silence, feeling just as helpless as Willow was looking, "but we'll try to figure out what it is tomorrow, alright? For now, you should just get some rest."

"Yeah", the redhead agreed at once, coming to her feet; giving her a calming smile, Pat straightened up as well, still holding her hand as they made their way into the bedroom together, the tender touch giving Willow the wordless reassurance that everything would be fine, helping her to calm down further and to soon get the rest she needed to handle this unusual situation.

* * *

><p>In the next morning, Willow called Buffy and asked her if she could come over; if the Slayer was surprised about this, she didn't let it show, merely telling her best friend that she'd be there in half an hour, then asked if she should bring anything along.<p>

"Appetite", Willow gave back, smiling slightly when her girlfriend stepped up to her and hugged her from behind, "I'm making breakfast."

"Oh, you know my Slayer appetite, that won't be a problem", Buffy reassured her, then said goodbye and hung up; the redhead did the same, a small sigh escaping her while she turned in her girlfriend's embrace and looked up at her, her smile fading as she thought of the talk which would have to come up sooner or later once Buffy had arrived.

"Do you think she'll have any ideas?" she asked, knowing that she would have to bring the topic up sooner or later; to her dismay, Pat shrugged, then gave her a calming smile, moving one hand to caress her hair while she replied. "Well, she's the Slayer, so she should know about some pretty warped stuff… On the other hand though, I'm a two hundred and forty two year old demon and I have no idea what it could be. But if Buffy doesn't know anything, Giles maybe will…"

"I hope so", Willow muttered, putting the cordless phone back into the charging station, then moving out of her girlfriend's embrace so she could go into the kitchen, Pat trotting along behind her, "before this gets even worse and I seriously hurt someone… Or even kill someone."

"That won't happen", the demon gave back at once, with a confidence that surprised the redhead, "now that we know that something really is wrong, we'll figure out what it is and find a solution, and things will be fine. We always do."

"I hope you're right", Willow replied, then managed to smile slightly again as she gestured at the fridge and asked her loved one if she'd help her with preparing breakfast; nodding, Pat smiled back at her and kissed her briefly before the couple starting making breakfast together, getting done with it just in time before Buffy arrived at their apartment.


	10. Chapter 10

The moment Buffy had sat down at the breakfast table, she made it clear that she had meant it when she had said that bringing an appetite wouldn't be a problem; she ate quite heartily, almost with as much appetite as Willow during her strange eating binges, munching down the pancakes and fried bacon strips the demon and the witch had prepared together.

"This is so yummy", the Slayer finally sighed out, after eating mostly in silence for almost ten minutes, "thanks! And that coffee's just perfect, as strong as it should be."

"That's because Pat made it, for me, it's almost too strong", Willow smirked in reply, "sometimes, I feel as if it'll knock me right out of my socks when I drink it."

"Well, if I'd made the food, the two of you would have food poisoning by now", Pat smirked, shaking her head when Buffy asked her if she wouldn't suffer from that, as well, with a gesture at the rather well filled plate of the taller woman.

"Nope, demon", she then reminded the blonde, "we don't get that. Bit of a queasy feeling maybe if I eat something really bad and rotten, but no drastic stuff like puking."

"Why would you eat anything which is really bad and rotten?" Buffy demanded to know, only to change her mind a second later and raising one hand, hurriedly speaking on, her words making the demon smirk. "No, wait, don't tell me. I'd rather not know. Better tell me why you wanted me to come over, okay?"

"Something's wrong with me", Willow was the one to answer that, quite bluntly, the Slayer giving her a surprised look – after how her best friend had reacted to their concern the previous day, Buffy never would have thought to hear those words come from Willow's mouth anytime soon.

"You guys were right", the witch now went on, eager to clarify, "it's not a spell, but it's something else…"

She quickly recounted all the strange things which had happened lately, mentioning her heightened appetite and the stomach cramps along with the fact that she was angered very quickly and ending with the fact that, during her walk the night before, had used magic against an innocent bystander again, sounding so ashamed when she told about this that it made Pat's heart clench up.

"I wish I could tell you I know what's going on", Buffy slowly started after the redhead had finished talking, "but if it's not a spell, I'm not really having an idea what it could be either… You didn't get any new jewellery or ate something weird before all that started, right?"

"Nope, none of that", Willow sighed, clearly dismayed about the lack of possible reasons for her strange behaviour the Slayer had provided her with, "I thought about that, too, but couldn't come up with anything, and neither could Pat."

"Unfortunately", the demon added, finishing her breakfast before she leaned back into her seat and lit up a cigarette, blowing a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling, speaking on afterwards. "So, we better ask Giles, before this gets even worse… or those cramps get even more intense. That was a pretty bad one yesterday, you should have seen it."

"Tell me about it", Willow mumbled, taking a sip of coffee afterwards; for once, her appetite was back to a more or less normal level, the witch not sure if she should be relieved about this or still worried – if the heightened appetite had just been a symptom for whatever was wrong with her, the fact that it seemed back to normal now might only mean that soon, it maybe would be replaced with another, possibly much less pleasant symptom.

"We should call Giles right away, so he can start researching already while we're on the way to his house", Buffy now decided, tearing the redhead out of her musings; nodding, Willow got up from her seat and made her way to the charging station, picking the phone up and dialling the Watcher's number while she returned to the breakfast table and sat down again, smiling weakly at her girlfriend when she reached over to grasp her free hand tenderly, giving her some silent reassurance.

To the witch's relief, Giles took the call quite quickly, and after a short, polite greeting, she started explaining why she had called; immediately, the Brit told her that they should come to his place right away and that he'd start looking for answers already, warning her though that he most likely wouldn't be able to find anything during the time it'd take them to come to his home.

"Doesn't matter", Willow reassured him, "we'll help you with searching… Thanks."

"That's what friends are here for", Giles replied, and she could almost hear the small smile on his face; smiling as well now, the redhead thanked him once more, then told him they'd be there as fast as possible before she said goodbye and hung up, nodding when Buffy asked her if she wanted to leave at once.

In response, both Pat and the Slayer finished their coffee, then got up from their seats; the witch did the same, and together, the three of them made their way into the hallway, quickly putting on their shoes and jackets there before they left the apartment together, heading for the Watcher's place not even five minutes after the phone call had ended.

* * *

><p>When they arrived at Giles' house a short time later, he already sat at the living room table, a stack of books sitting in the middle of said table, one more lying opened in front of him; without beating around the bush, the Watcher immediately asked them to take a seat and handed out books before he asked if anyone wanted tea, not surprised when they all declined.<p>

"You are sure that the potion was done correctly?" he asked Willow while handing out books, making the witch nod before she told him once more that there was no spell on her; he nodded as an answer, then advised the small group to look for texts about possession then, the witch grimacing at the thought that something might have taken her over, without her even noticing.

"But when would that have happened?" Pat wanted to know, accepting the book and giving it a sceptical glance, silently hoping that the print wouldn't be too tiny, continuing when Giles gave her a questioning look in reply.

"When could anything have possessed her?" she tried to clarify, shrugging when clearly, the Watcher still didn't have an idea what she was talking about. "Lately, we only fought random vampires and demons, no other witches or anything. The last big fight we had was against those four horsemen and the monster which ended up here when Willow sent them to that other dimension."

"And that thing didn't look as if it knew anything about possession", Buffy added helpfully, the witch nodding her agreement as well to underline her best friend's words, "it was more like a wild animal than some really smart being, capable of doing that."

"And you fought no magical beings since then?" Giles demanded to know, obviously disappointed when all three declined, showing his dismay about this answer by taking off his glasses and beginning to clean them, clearing his throat before he went on. "This will be considerably harder then… We shouldn't ignore the possibility of possession though, so keep looking for that. Also, we should check for substances which might have the effects you've described, Willow."

"You mean, as in poisons?" Pat threw in, sounding flabbergasted, her good eye momentarily going wide, "you think someone _poisoned_ her?"

"It is possible", Giles had to admit, with obvious dismay again, "and unfortunately, it is more likely than possession, considering what you just told me. Just let me get some books…"

With those words, he got up from his seat again and moved to one of the bigger bookshelves in the room; he looked at them for a few seconds, then pulled several of them out, skilfully ignoring the groan he heard from both Buffy and Pat behind him, having heard those groans often enough by now to know how to do that.

"This should do for now", he stated, moving back to the table and putting the books next to the stack of the ones about possession, "there should be some more at the Magic Box, in case we find nothing in those."

"Oh joy", Pat muttered sourly, something the Watcher ignored just as well as the unison groan she had let out with Buffy moments ago; he just gave her a short smile, then sat down and focused on the book he had chosen for himself again, prompting the three women to do the same, the only noise filling the room soon being the sound of pages being turned, only occasionally interrupted when one of them let out a thoughtful noise or a small, dismayed sigh when yet another promising text ended up useless.

* * *

><p>"Well, that was a waste of time", Pat dryly stated two hours later, snapping the last book of the stack shut and rubbing her good eye, once more cursing the liking the makers of those books had for tiny print, "unless one of you found something."<p>

"Nope", Willow sighed out next to her, pushing her own finished book away from herself with a look of dismay, "nothing in here. Buffy?"

In response, the Slayer just shook her head; then, they all looked at Giles, grimacing when he repeated the blonde's gesture, taking off his glasses once more as he leaned back into his seat.

"I'll call the Magic Box", he went on, "and inform Anya that we'll be coming. I'm quite sure that the store has some more books about those subjects, maybe we'll be luckier there."

"And what if not?" Willow wanted to know, her voice trembling just enough to let the others notice her distress, prompting Pat to reach over and grasp her hand, giving it a calming squeeze; briefly, the witch looked at her, then focused on Giles again, still not sounding much happier when she spoke on. "What if we can't figure out what's wrong with me, and it'll get worse and worse?"

"That won't happen", Buffy was the first one to speak up in reply, giving her best friend a hopefully calming smile, "we always figured out what's going on so far, right? And that's just what we'll also do this time."

After a few moments of pondering this, the witch nodded at last; Giles smiled calmingly at her as well, then got up from his seat and made his way to the phone, quickly dialling the Magic Box' phone number, quietly speaking to Anya once the call had been taken while the demon gave her girlfriend another worried look.

"Are you feeling anything now?" she then asked in a low voice, not wanting to interfere with Giles and his phone call; immediately, Willow shook her head, momentarily glad that so far, she hadn't been plagued by one of this horrid stomach cramps, a weak smile curling her lips when she replied. "No, thankfully… But those cramps can come superfast, so…"

"I wish I could do something", the black haired woman sighed out after a moment of silence, giving her girlfriend a distraught look. "It's really troubling to know that there's some kind of problem, but I can't help you with it…"

"Seconded", Buffy threw in, making both Willow and Pat look at her, "but I'm sure we'll find out how to help you sooner or later, and then everything will be fine. Right?"

"I hope so", the witch muttered, another sigh escaping her; then, she forced herself to smile weakly, giving her best to appear brave and confident, neither Pat nor Buffy buying it though. Before any of the two could say something though, Giles finished his call and hung up the phone; smiling, he turned to look at the three women again, sounding as confident as Willow had tried to look seconds ago when he spoke up and informed them that Anya had several books about the subject at the Magic Box and that she was getting them out of the shelves for the little group right now.

"We better go there then", Pat stated, already rising from her chair; nodding, both Buffy and Willow did the same, the redhead grasping her girlfriend's hand the moment she was standing, clearly in the need of comfort.

Giving her hand a tender squeeze, Pat looked at her, hoping that the glance was as reassuring as she wanted it to be; to her relief, the redhead smiled back weakly, then moved a bit closer to the taller woman, prompting her to put one arm around her shoulders. Smiling at the sight, Buffy asked if they were ready to go; they all nodded in reply before the group left the house together, heading for the Magic Box, all of them hoping that there, they would find answers to the many questions they all had.


	11. Chapter 11

For another three hours, the research went on, with all members of the gang present now, even Dawn tagging along, clearly eager to help; despite their efforts though, they found nothing which appeared even remotely helpful, even though Anya had dug out every book she could have been able to think of.

"I can't believe it", Buffy finally stated, her annoyance clearly showing through her voice, "there has to be something somewhere!"

"Nothing here", Pat sighed, snapping the book about poisons she had been reading shut; she'd gotten excited several times when she had found substances which could cause one of the symptoms Willow was suffering from, but none of those had been cited as causing all of them at once.

"But there has to be something, somewhere", Xander almost grumbled, staring at the book he had been going through angrily, as if it was the fault of the pages that so far, they hadn't found anything, "I mean, there has to be a reason for why this is happening to Willow, right?"

"For sure", Giles agreed, sounding tired and dismayed as well, "but it seems as if the answer to that question isn't in any of my books, which is, frankly, quite disconcerting."

"So what do we do now?" Pat demanded to know, crossing her arms over her chest while next to her, the redhead shifted on her chair nervously, "just wait and see what will happen? That's not an option, you know."

"I could check the internet", Dawn suggested, shrugging when everyone looked at her with surprise, sounding slightly defiant when she spoke on. "It's worth a try, right? The worst thing that could happen is that I don't find anything, but if I do…"

She shrugged again, smiling slightly when after a moment, Giles nodded, then asked her when she could do this, prompting her to shrug for a third time before she told him she could get started right after returning to her home.

"I'll keep looking into this, too", the Watcher promised in response, looking at Willow again now, "and maybe we should contact the coven in England, they might know something about this…"

"I doubt it", the redhead sighed, prompting the Brit to raise an eyebrow at her, the questioning look making her explain the reason for her doubts. "They're witches, and it's not been caused by a spell. They don't know much about poisons, right?"

"Probably not", Giles had to admit, taking off his glasses and starting to clean them, as he always did when something was bothering or annoying him, "but it is worth a try. We are at a dead end here, after all…"

"Is there anything we can do?" Willow wanted to know after having to admit that the Watcher had a point here; to her dismay, he shook his head, then moved over to her, placing one hand on her shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Just go home", he then advised, his voice kind, "and I suggest that you stay there as much as possible, if your aggression is still at this high level… We don't need unwanted attention before we can figure out what is going on."

"You're asking me to stay at home until this has been solved?" Willow demanded to know, sounding both bewildered and slightly annoyed; keeping her current tendency to overreacting in mind, Pat quickly reached out and grasped her hand, making the redhead look at her, giving her best to sound soothing when she answered for the Watcher.

"Giles has a point, you know", she let the witch know, choosing her words carefully, "plus, you'll be safest at home, in case any other symptoms come up… And I'll be there with you, I'll make sure you won't get bored."

"Plus, it surely won't be for long", Buffy added, making the redhead look from her girlfriend and at her, "we'll figure out what is happening to you, and how to get rid of whatever it is, and then everything will be just as it was before… whatever it was that happened and caused all this."

"Also", Dawn found it necessary to add her own arguments, making Willow wonder briefly if she had sounded that angry about staying at home for a few days, since they all were trying to convince her otherwise, "if this is caused by some poison, maybe it'll go away once there's no more of it added to your system, and if you stay at home, that won't happen, right?"

"Alright, alright", the redhead finally – and grudgingly – gave in, "I'll stay at home. I just hope it won't take forever until we figure something out."

"I'm sure this won't be the case", Giles reassured her, patting her shoulder once more; she just gave him a miserable look, then got up from her chair, prompting Pat to do the same a second later.

"We'll call in case anything comes up", the demon promised, making Buffy nod before she told the taller woman to take good care of Willow; reassuring her that she would, Pat put on her jacket, then put her arm around the redhead's shoulders again, giving her a calming smile when she felt how tense she was.

"And you call us as soon as you know anything", she then stated, giving Giles a strict look and making him nod as well; afterwards, both Willow and Pat said goodbye, then left the Magic Box and headed home, the witch still not all too happy about the thought of having to stay there for God knew how long, but knowing that at least for now, she didn't have much of a choice.

* * *

><p>The moment they had arrived at the apartment, Willow almost jumped out of her shoes and jacket, then hurried into the living room; startled at her speed, Pat quickly followed her, raising an eyebrow when she saw the witch sit down with her laptop on the table in front of her.<p>

"Dawn's idea is good", the redhead explained at her girlfriend's questioning look, "maybe we can find something on the internet. And it'll keep me busy, if I really am supposed to stay here as much as possible…"

"Can I help?" the demon asked in reply, figuring that her girlfriend had made a good point; smiling, Willow nodded, then patted the couch beside her, a mischief glint in her eyes when she spoke up. "Yes, you can, by sitting down here and cuddling with me while I look…"

"Gladly", Pat agreed at once, asking the witch if she should get drinks for them first; after thinking about for a moment, Willow nodded, making the demon smile at her before she moved into the kitchen, finding two cooled cans of coke in the fridge, opening them while she returned to the living room, handing one of them to her girlfriend before she sat down next to her.

"Thanks", the redhead smiled, leaning in for a kiss afterwards, another wish the demon gladly fulfilled; then, she leaned back into the couch and put an arm around the smaller woman, prompting her to take the laptop into her lap and lean back against her girlfriend, making Pat wrap both arms around her a moment later.

"Now I'm all set", Willow decided once she had made herself comfortable; she took the time to make sure that the laptop was standing on her upper legs securely, then started typing, entering the address of one of her favourite websites about all things supernatural.

"Unlike most other sites about those topics, this is one of the few which is not ninety-five percent junk", she explained, giggling when Pat pointed to a recently added article about how the water from the tap was used to control the population, her voice dry when she replied. "So it's only seventy percent junk, then?"

"I don't know why they allow this conspiracy theory stuff", the witch gave back, moving the cursor to the search field of the site, "but other than that, they are pretty good. Now let's see if there'll be anything useful here…"

Even though looking at computer screens tired her eye out very fast, Pat forced herself not to look away as Willow started looking for answers; it didn't take long until her eye started to tear up, and she absent-mindedly wiped at it, making Willow look away from the computer screen and at her, worry clearly showing through her gaze.

"Are you sure you want to look at this with me?" she asked, sounding just as concerned as she was looking.

"I'll be fine", the demon stubbornly gave back, leaning forward a bit before Willow could reply anything and tapping the laptop monitor, pointing one of the links out to her.

"What about this?" she asked, as if to underline the point that there had been enough conversation about her eye's reaction to computer screens, making a long face when Willow shook her head.

"We've already ruled out possession, remember?" the witch then reminded her girlfriend of the results the day's research had brought, "so that won't help. It has to be something else…"

"All I can think of is poison", Pat mumbled in reply, glaring at the laptop screen as if it was the machine's fault that so far, they hadn't found anything, "but the thought of someone poisoning you is just as unsettling as the thought of some weird spirit possessing you. And I have no idea when either of the two could have happened."

"Me neither, especially not the possession thing", Willow sighed, focusing on the website again. "Poisoning would be possible", she went on while she clicked on several other links, leading to different websites, "at college, for example…"

She trailed off, her fingers coming to a rest on the keyboard as she frowned to herself, her mind suddenly working on high speed, unpleasant possibilities rising to the surface.

"Or someone close to me", she added after a few moments of silence, turning her head to look at her girlfriend, "like you."

In response, the demon let out a chuckle, shaking her head – before she saw the expression in the redhead's eyes, the sight prompting her good eye to go wide, shock in her voice when she replied. "Wait, you're not joking, are you? You're _serious_?"

"Well, it can't be possession, as we figured it out", Willow gave back, her voice now cold; she shut the laptop and put it on the couch beside her, then got up, shooting an accusing look at the taller woman.

"And if it is poison, that would make sense, right?" she went on, not even realizing how crazy she was sounding. "How often do you bring me drinks and food? It'd be easy for you to slip something in there, right?"

"This is crazy", Pat gave back, barely able to believe her ears, still hoping that the witch was joking, even though she clearly could see in her eyes that she wasn't. "Why would I do that?" she went on, getting up from the couch as well and staring down at the smaller woman incredulously, her mind racing as she tried to find the right words to make Willow see how crazy exactly that idea was.

"I love you!", she added after a moment, holding back the urge to nervously run both hands through her hair, "why should I do this to you?"

"I don't know", Willow gave back, crossing her arms over her chest, clearly not impressed by her girlfriend's words, "why would you? You'd have your reasons, I imagine."

"This is crazy", Pat repeated, hating how helpless this was making her feel, but giving her best not to let that show.

"Look", she went on after another second, "this has to be another symptom of whatever it is that is wrong with you! At first it made you aggressive, and now it's making you paranoid!"

"Or that's what you want me to think", Willow snapped, her eyes going in the next moment, another very unpleasant thought coming to her mind.

"You're all in on it, aren't you?" she cried out, with so much force in her voice that the black haired woman nearly took a step back, "all of you! The whole gang! This is why you all wanted me to stay here, so you can keep an eye on me easier, isn't it? And go on with poisoning me easier!"

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Pat demanded to know as an answer, staring at the witch with disbelief. "This is crazy!" she said for the third time, as if Willow would realize that too after hearing it often enough, "don't you realize that, as well? I'm your girlfriend, the others are your friends, Buffy and Xander are your best friends! Why would we do such a thing?"

"I don't know", Willow gave back, "but I'll find out. I'm afraid this means I can't play along much longer."

With those words, she grabbed her handbag and started to make her way towards the hallway; before she could reach it though, Pat had moved with surprising speed to stand in front of her, all annoyance and disbelief gone from her voice, concern replacing it fully as she tried to stop her girlfriend.

"Don't go", she almost pleaded, grasping the redhead's shoulders and making sure to hold her gaze, "don't you see? This is just like after we gave you that potion, you thought we're all thinking that you lost your mind, but then you realized something's wrong… This is just another symptom, calm down and think about it and you'll see I'm right!"

"I'm leaving now", Willow replied coldly, clearly not willing to do what her girlfriend had suggested, "and you won't keep me from doing so."

"I have to", Pat gave back, tightening her grip on the smaller woman's shoulders slightly, "I can't let you go out there as long as you're… like this. I'm sorry."

"So how do you intend to stop me?" the redhead asked sweetly in reply, "knock me out? Tie me up? Both?"

Stunned, all Pat could do in reply was stare at her, having to admit that she didn't have an answer to that; Willow gave her a smile, then pushed past her and into the hallway, the sound of her putting on her shoes tearing the demon out of her reverie. Quickly, she turned and hurried after her girlfriend, reaching out and grasping her arm just as she reached for her jacket, not sure what she wanted to do to stop her, but also knowing that she couldn't just let her go.

"Willow, please", she thus tried to reason once more, "just think about this…"

"Let go of me", the redhead snapped in reply, turning to glare at the taller woman, "I'm leaving, and I will not let you stop me!"

In response, Pat merely kept holding on to her arm, fumbling for words as she tried to find the right ones to make her girlfriend see reason; before she could come up with anything though, Willow's gaze suddenly darkened – and then she reached out with her free hand, placing it on the black haired woman's chest, a malicious smirk Pat never had seen on her face before slowly curling her lips.

The demon just had another second to wonder what was going to happen, sensing that it would be something quite dreadful; before she could say anything though, or try to step away, blue fire suddenly crackled between Willow's fingers, sharp pain racing through her chest for a few horrible moments, a low groan escaping her.

"See, this is the problem", Willow stated coldly, the crackle of her magic increasing, heightening the pain of her girlfriend as well, "unlike you, I'm willing to take certain… measures to get what it want."

With those words, her fingers curled into a fist, making Pat momentarily feel as if something was tugging at her heart with nauseating, horrible strength – before Willow unclenched her fist with a quick movement, a low thumping sound echoing through the apartment as the demon got hit by some massive, shockingly strong force, her feet even leaving the carpet briefly as she got thrown backwards, the apartment door stopping her harshly.

The sound of her girlfriend hitting the wood and the sight of how she slumped down the carpet, grasping her chest in pain, accomplished what all the reasonable words hadn't been able to do – Willow's eyes went wide as she stared at her and realized what she had done, all unpleasant thoughts about how her state was the fault of her friends and her girlfriend vanishing from her mind within the blink of an eye.

"Oh, God", she brought out, dropping her handbag and rushing to the taller woman's side, "I'm so sorry… Are you okay? I'm so sorry!"

"I think I'm fine", Pat groaned in reply, moving her hand from her chest to the back of her head, grimacing when she felt the bump which was already forming there.

"I never knew that door's so robust", she added, giving the witch a thankful smile when she put an arm around her waist and helped her to her feet, all at once feeling close to tears.

"I can't believe I did that", she brought out, her voice trembling, "I'm so sorry…"

"It's not your fault", the demon reassured her, grimacing once more as she let Willow lead her back to the living room, her head pounding by now, but at least the pain in her chest was slowly fading. "It's… whatever it is that is wrong with you…"

The quick forgiveness and the ease with which it was provided pushed Willow over the edge within seconds; she looked at her girlfriend for a few moments longer, then her lower lip started to tremble, tears rolling down her cheeks moments later, a harsh sob escaping her.

"Hey, no, don't cry", Pat tried to calm her down at once, "please? I'm fine, really, it wasn't that bad…"

"I can't believe I did this!" Willow sobbed in reply, sitting down next to the demon on the couch and burying her face in her hands.

"It's okay, really", Pat reassured her once more, putting one arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to herself, her pain forgotten at the sight of Willow so distressed. "I'm fine, and you'll be fine too, we'll figure out what is causing this and then we'll help you get rid of it… I'm just glad you didn't leave."

"I hope this won't happen again", the redhead sniffled in reply, accepting the handkerchief her girlfriend was holding out to her and blowing her nose before she spoke on, sounding a bit calmer now, the flow of tears slowly coming to an end. "I was so sure that all of you are behind this, it just came into my mind like out of nowhere, but the moment I thought of it, I was so sure that it's true and that I have to leave…"

"Almost as if whatever it is wanted you separate from all of us", Pat thoughtfully gave back, "who knows what would have happened if you'd really gone…"

"I don't even want to think about it", Willow mumbled, shuddering at various horrible possibilities which came up in front of her inner eye, "I'm just glad I snapped out of it, even though I hurt you before doing so…"

"You didn't hurt me badly", Pat reassured her, "stop worrying about that… But we really have to figure this out fast."

"Indeed", Willow sighed, showing how fast she wanted to figure this out by opening the laptop up again and placing it on her upper legs, focusing on the search for answers again not even a minute later while Pat remained next to her and watched her, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what was going on – and how to stop her girlfriend from leaving the next time such thoughts might be put into her mind.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Since tomorrow, it's concert time and I won't be at home to update, I'll do it a day earlier again – enjoy :)

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><p>Thankfully, for the rest of the day, no more thoughts about treachery from her friends came up in the redhead's mind; she spent most of the time in front of her laptop, searching the internet for solutions, without much success though. The only small break she had taken from her work was when Pat had convinced her that she had to eat something, a task made considerably easier by the pizza the black haired woman had ordered; after eating, Willow immediately had focused on the laptop again, clearly not willing to give up anytime soon.<p>

"Enough for today", she still sighed out when it slowly was getting dark outside, shutting the laptop down and closing it before she put it back on the table, rubbing her eyes afterwards, feeling tired after staring at the screen for so long. "I'll go on tomorrow… My eyes are tired." "Maybe Giles will have found something until then", Pat gave back, putting the book she had been reading aside and moving a bit closer to the redhead on the couch, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I hope so", Willow sighed out as an answer, glaring down at her tummy when it growled audibly, her system obviously ignoring the fact that she had eaten half of a rather big pizza not all too long ago.

"Can you believe that I'm getting hungry again?" she then stated the obvious, looking at her girlfriend with dismay, "I hope all that food I apparently have to shovel down won't make me fat."

"I doubt it", Pat gave back, smiling at her once more, "whatever it is that is responsible for your situation, it clearly needs a lot of fuel, so you're probably burning it as fast as you eat it. Which would explain why you are hungry again already. Want me to make you a sandwich?"

"That'd be nice", Willow had to admit after a moment, her stomach rumbling again as if to underline her words; in response, the taller woman leaned in for a quick kiss, then got up from the couch and made her way into the kitchen while Willow leaned back into the couch and, after a moment of consideration, switched on the TV.

Waiting for her girlfriend to get back with the snack she had offered, the witch zapped through the channels, looking for something interesting; after a while, she found a documentary and settled on it, putting the remote down just when Pat returned to the living room, carrying a plate with a rather thick sandwich on it.

"There you go", the demon smiled, sitting down next to her girlfriend and handing her the plate; thanking her, Willow accepted it, then took a big bite of the snack, rolling her eyes in delight as she chewed.

"This is so good", she told her girlfriend after she had swallowed, "thanks… I can't believe I thought you'd be poisoning my food. I feel so stupid now, you know… and I know you said I shouldn't, but I still feel bad about using that spell on you…"

"Nope, you shouldn't feel bad", Pat smirked, "as I said, I'm fine, it wasn't that bad…" "But it could have been", the witch found it necessary to point out, "I might have really hurt you… Or worse…"

"I don't think you could have done anything worse than what you did", the demon gave back, raising an eyebrow at the sceptical look she received from Willow in reply, quickly going on and explaining herself. "No matter how much this is changing you, there's still a part of the real you left… So I don't think you could have hurt me worse, even if whatever it is that has been putting those thoughts into your mind wanted you to."

"I hope you're right", the redhead sighed, then took another big bite of her sandwich – before she held it to her girlfriend, smiling when the demon gladly accepted and bit a piece off as well.

"How're you feeling now?" Pat wanted to know after chewing and swallowing, the witch shrugging as an answer, taking another bite of the sandwich before she replied verbally as well. "Normal, well, except for the hunger. No more bad thoughts."

"Good", the demon smirked, then gestured at the witch's tummy, sounding concerned again when she spoke on. "And the tummy? No more cramps?"

"Not since the one yesterday, thank God", Willow smiled, finishing the sandwich and getting up from the couch to carry the plate back into the kitchen; now that her girlfriend had finished eating, Pat figured that it'd be okay to smoke and did just that, lighting up a cigarette before making herself comfortable on the couch again, waiting for the redhead to come back so they could enjoy some calmness and cuddling before it'd be time to go and get some much needed sleep.

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><p>Several hours later, the apartment was quiet, the only audible sound being the calm breaths of the couple in the bedroom; despite the excitement of the evening, they both had fallen asleep quite quickly, Willow lying halfway on top of her girlfriend, by now not even hearing the soft snoring sounds the taller woman let out every now and then anymore.<p>

Even though the redhead still had been upset about what she had done when she had gone to bed, she was spared of having any nasty dreams about the incident; thus, she wasn't sure why she had woken up when she opened her eyes in the darkness, blinking sleepily before she looked at the alarm clock on her nightstand, frowning when she saw that it was a few minutes past three a.m..

Momentarily, she laid still, trying to figure out if the beginnings of a stomach cramp had torn her out of her slumber; when her tummy remained calm though, she frowned again, then rolled over, deciding to shrug it off and just go back to sleep. Next to her, Pat let out a low grunt as she changed her position as well, ending up on her side, one arm propped over the witch's waist; this made Willow smile slightly to herself, a yawn escaping her as she closed her eyes, hoping that she'd go back to sleep quickly.

Just as she was close to drifting off into slumber, already dozing lightly, a strange feeling in her stomach jolted her awake again, and she held back the urge to groan, not wanting to wake up the demon slumbering soundly next to her; thus, she carefully rolled on her back again and stared up at the ceiling, waiting to see if the strange feeling would come again or if it had been a one time thing – or maybe something she had dreamt up, already half asleep when it had happened.

It didn't take long until the feeling came again, making her grimace – it felt as if the muscles in her stomach were twitching on their own, a rather unpleasant sensation. Even though she wasn't sure she'd see anything, Willow sat up on the bed and pushed her pyjama top, exposing her tummy and looking at it intently; by now, her eyes had gotten used to the darkness enough to let her see the smooth skin, the redhead frowning to herself as she stared down on it, momentarily feeling rather stupid.

A few seconds later, this was blown away though when the twitching feeling came up again, a low gasp escaping the redhead when she simultaneously saw the skin of stomach bulge outwards, as if something was pushing against it from the inside. With her heart now racing in her chest, she hurriedly got up from the bed and made her way into the bathroom; there, she closed the door behind herself before she switched on the light, then stood in front of the mirror and pushed her top up once more, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright light.

Hoping and praying that she had imagined the sight of her skin bulging, that it had been an optical illusion caused by shadows and her tiredness, she kept staring at the mirror, not even noticing how she held her breath as she waited for something to happen; to her great dismay, the feeling came again another thirty seconds later, along with the bulging of her skin, the sight making her stomach turn.

Tiny droplets of sweat started to form on her brow as she reached down with one hand and ran it over her tummy; as if whatever was causing this had only been waiting for the touch, the twitch came again, much stronger this time, the skin bulging outwards so strongly that for a moment, Willow was surprised it didn't get torn. Then, her surprise got washed away as panic rose within her, her throat suddenly feeling too tight to let her breathe properly; gasping, she staggered out of the bedroom and over to the bed, tears filling her eyes as she grabbed her girlfriend's shoulder and tried to shake her awake, her voice cracking when she spoke up. "Pat, wake up, please, something's wrong…"

With another grunt, the demon did just that, opening her good eye and blinking sleepily; then, as she saw the distress on her girlfriend's face and the tears which by now were rolling down her cheeks, she was wide awake within seconds, sitting up hurriedly and giving the redhead a concerned look.

"What is it?" she demanded to know, reaching out with one hand to place it on her girlfriend's arm, only to jump when she saw the pyjama top bulge, her good eye going wide while Willow let out a sob, knowing what her loved one just had seen.

"Something's inside me", the redhead then brought out, her voice nearly breaking, "I can feel it, it's inside me…"

All at once, her panic grew so big that all rational thought was pushed out of her mind, only the need to get this thing out of herself remaining; with another sob, she started scratching at her stomach, the sight startling Pat enough to almost make her jump again – before she grabbed her girlfriend's wrists to stop her from harming herself, giving her best to sound soothing and to not let it show how freaked out she was herself by this when she spoke up.

"Hey, no, don't do that, don't hurt yourself", she tried to calm the witch down, tightening her grip on her wrists slightly when she tried to break free, "that's not helping… Let's go and call Giles, right now, okay? He'll know what to do, and if he doesn't, he'll figure something out, okay?"

"…okay", the witch agreed after a moment, a shiver running through her when she felt her stomach twitch again, forcing herself not to look down on it; still giving her best to hide how freaked out she was, Pat nodded and got up from the bed, surprising herself with how stable her voice sounded as she spoke up again. "I'll go and get the phone then… Do you wanna wait here?"

"No", Willow immediately gave back, getting up as well; eager to calm her down, Pat put an arm around her shoulders and almost led her into the living room, both of them sitting down on the couch there before the demon picked up the phone and quickly dialled Giles' number, hoping that he wouldn't be slumbering too deeply to hear it ring – and that he'd be able to provide the answers they needed.

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><p>It had taken annoyingly long until Giles finally had answered the phone, and he had sounded as if he still was half asleep when he had done so; after a quick explanation about the reason for the call from Pat though, he had been wide awake within the blink an eye and had promised to come over as soon as possible and that he'd bring Buffy with him, for reasons the demon couldn't quite figure out, but didn't bother to argue about.<p>

"He'll be here as fast as possible", she let Willow know after she had ended the call, "and he'll bring Buffy along, don't ask me why…"

Clearly not caring much about why Giles would bring the Slayer along, Willow just nodded, shifting on the couch uncomfortably afterwards; the twitching in her stomach had stopped while the demon had been on the phone, but she knew that this didn't mean anything and that there still was something inside her which didn't belong there.

"I'm sure he'll be helpful", the black haired woman now added, putting the phone back on the table before she put an arm around the witch again and pulled her a bit closer to herself, "and it'll be fine…"

"What if he can't figure it out?" the redhead wanted to know in reply, finally looking up and at her girlfriend, the frightened expression in her eyes making the demon's heart clench up.

"Well", she gave back, choosing her words carefully, not wanting to upset the witch even further, "now we at least know what has been causing all those weird symptoms, and we can narrow the search down… I'm sure we'll figure this out sooner or later, I mean, whatever this thing is, it must have gotten inside you somehow, right?"

"I have no idea", Willow sighed out in reply, looking down on her tummy again and grimacing as she thought of what exactly might be in there right now; as if whatever it was had read her mind, another twitch came, this time with a bolt of pain, making her gasp.

"What is it?" Pat immediately wanted to know, looking at her with fresh concern, her worry only growing when a shudder ran through the witch in reply, a groan escaping her through clenched teeth as another wave of pain rushed through her.

"It hurts", she brought out after a moment, nearly crying out when the pain intensified even further, making her feel as if something was tearing her up from the inside. Doubling over, she let out another low groan, sweat forming on her brow again; not sure what to do, Pat could only stare at her helplessly, her mind running wild as she tried to figure out how to help her girlfriend.

Gasping, Willow blindly reached out, feeling a bit relieved when immediately, the demon grasped her hand; she groaned again, then pressed her free hand to her stomach as it cramped up again – before a burp escaped her, something which would have been comical under different circumstances, but only was upsetting her further now.

"What's happening to me?" she groaned out, squeezing her girlfriend's hand so hard that the bones nearly cracked when a fresh wave of pain surged through her; before Pat had a chance to reply anything though, the witch shivered once more, then bent forward even further, dry-heaving a few times – before she vomited up a shockingly large glob of a transparent, slimy substance, the smell which rose from it making both her and Pat grimace.

Horrified, Willow stared at the stuff, even forgetting her pain for a moment; next to her, the demon looked quite freaked out as well, by now not able to hide this anymore, the feeling only increasing when the witch dry-heaved again, a strange rumbling sound coming from her stomach.

"Oh God", she brought out, then covered her mouth with one hand; the rumbling sound came up once more, then her eyes went wide as she felt something move within her, her skin bulging again – before she felt the sensation move not just inside her, but _upwards_, her eyes going wide as she realized what was going on.

"Pat", she still had the time to say, "it's…" Her own gagging interrupted her, and she clutched at her throat, her eyes going wide again; next to her, the demon grabbed her shoulder, her freaked out state now also showing through her voice as she asked what was going on, only to jerk back when Willow gagged again, another glob of slime falling from her mouth, a shiver running through her at the awful taste that was filling her mouth.

"Oh Jesus", she heard Pat press out next to her as she felt the thing within her move up her throat, felt how the skin bulged there, as well; then, her mouth was forced open again as something made it's way out, accompanied by horrid gagging and choking noises Willow was letting out, a heavy gasp escaping her the moment the thing finally had wriggled out fully and had fallen to the carpeted floor.

Dimly, she heard how Pat now started to gag as well, then the demon jumped up from the couch and, with surprising readiness of mind, considering what she just had witnessed, rushed to one of the nearest pot plants and puked into it, clearly having difficulties to deal with what she just had seen.

"What the fuck was that!" she demanded to know as soon as she could be sure she wouldn't throw up again, "and where the Hell did it go?"

"I have no idea", Willow brought out, trembling, not allowing herself to pass out though, her eyes darting from side to side as she tried to spot the creature which just had left her body, "but it can't have gotten far, all doors are closed…"

"Are you okay?" Pat seemed to remember what her girlfriend just had gone through, the monster she had puked up momentarily forgotten; immediately, Willow nodded, briefly stunned at how good she felt – all twitching was gone from her stomach, and now that the creature had been expelled, all pain was gone, as well.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me, find that thing and kill it!" she almost ordered, only to flinch a second later when the sound of something writhing across the carpet reached her ears. "Over there!" she added, pointing into the direction the noise had came from; since she obviously had heard it as well, the demon didn't bother to question any of her words, but hurried over, spotting the creature and stomping down as hard as she could, a harsh curse escaping her when it slithered away just in time, vanishing beneath one of the bookshelves.

"Fucking thing is hiding behind that", she then stated, gesturing at said shelf, "and what is it, anyway? Have you ever seen anything like that?"

"No", Willow gave back, for a moment feeling like throwing up when she remembered that until a few minutes ago, this thing had been living inside her, probably responsible for all the strange symptoms she had experiences lately, and how that thing had left her body. Covering her mouth with one hand, she let out a small burp, grimacing at the taste that still filled her mouth; then, Pat's cursing distracted her from all those thoughts, her gaze coming up to watch how the demon moved a few steps back from the shelf, the piece of furniture now trembling visibly.

"What's going…" Willow still had the time to ask, then the shelf toppled over and fell; with a daring dive, Pat got out of the way, her good eye and both eyes of her girlfriend going wide when they saw the creature crawl away from the wall the shelf had been standing at, the fact that in the few moments since it had hidden behind it, it had almost tripled in size – and had grown tiny, but clearly functional legs – only increasing their bewilderment about what was going on.

"I'll go get a weapon", Pat finally snapped out of her reverie, "and kill this thing before it grows even bigger. If it gets close to you, just shout and I'll come running!"

"Okay", the redhead agreed, her eyes not leaving the creature for a split second; coming to her feet again, the demon hurried into the bedroom, quickly opening the large chest right next to her side of the bed and grabbing an axe from it before she rushed back to the living room, hoping that at least, this thing could be finished off quickly – before it'd grow even bigger and maybe stronger than she dared to anticipate right now.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: And here we go with the final chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed it :) the next one will be started on Thursday – yup, still on a roll here.

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><p>When Giles' call had torn her out of her peaceful slumber, Buffy had been annoyed only for a second, namely during the time span between picking up the phone and mumbling "What?" and the Watcher's response; she knew that he'd never call her without a good reason, and moments later, he had proven her right once more by telling her what was happening to Willow, all sleepiness falling off her when she heard the danger her best friend might be in. Without asking any questions, she had promised Giles to meet him at the apartment building the couple lived in as fast as possible; and after she had hung up, she had put on clothes as fast as possible, had grabbed a weapon and had left, but still, the Brit had been faster than her, waiting for her in front of the building when she arrived there.<p>

"The lights are on in their apartment", he told her as a greeting, gesturing to the window, "but I couldn't hear or see anything. Are you ready to go upstairs?"

"Of course", Buffy gave back, raising her sword slightly as if to underline her words; Giles nodded, then surprised her by reaching beneath his jacket and bringing out a weapon as well, a one-handed axe which easily could be hidden from the eyes of the public.

"I hope we won't need those", he stated while he pushed the door open and entered, the Slayer close behind him; she stayed there until they reached the elevator and had ridden up to the second floor, then pushed past him so she'd be the first one to enter, figuring that it'd be the smartest thing to do, thanks to her strength and fighting experience.

Already on the hallway, she could hear the sounds of fighting coming from behind the closed apartment door; the noises prompted her to speed up, almost falling into a run as she hurried to the door and, without bothering to knock or ring the bell, kicked it open.

With Giles close behind her, she stormed down the hallway and into the living room, the fighting noises clearly coming from there; upon entering, she found Willow on the couch, the witch looking quite upset as she was struggling to aim her spell correctly, something made harder by the fact that a few feet from her, Pat was on the floor with some sort of slimy black creature on top of her, snarling and spitting at her while it was struggling to get a horribly long and sharp claw down to the demon's face, something which was made considerably harder by the fact that Pat had grabbed the arm of the monster and was pushing it away from herself with all her might, her face reddened and the veins at her neck standing out clearly.

It took Buffy just one second to figure out what the monster was trying to do – the sharp claw was trembling right above the demon's good eye, and her mind started to race as she tried to figure out how to stop the creature fast enough to keep it from ramming that claw into the black haired woman's eye without endangering her friend.

Before she could come up with something though, Pat solved the situation herself; with a surprisingly loud, throaty growl, she put all her strength into one mighty push, managing to get the creature away from her and shove it a few feet back, using the few seconds this gave her to come to her feet. For a moment, Giles considered throwing her his axe, then he heard her growl again, the sound followed by the noises she made as she changed into her demonic form; deciding that she wouldn't need that weapon then, the Watcher kept the axe to himself, standing back a bit so he wouldn't get into the line of fire – literally – when both Buffy and Pat now charged at the monster.

"Be careful", the demon rumbled, ducking a swipe from the creature's clawed arm aimed at her chest, "it's growing awfully fast, we better finish it off quickly!"

"What is it?" the Slayer demanded to know in reply, bringing her sword around in a glittering arch of steel and managing to cut the monster's side; it shrieked in pain, and all at once, Buffy knew where she had seen such a creature before, her eyes going wide as the realization hit her.

"Fighting now, explanations later!" Pat now snapped, punching the creature as hard as she could and making it howl again when the flames sizzled on its skin; it stumbled a few steps back, giving Willow the chance she had been waiting for, taking the time to call out a warning to both Buffy and Pat to keep them from charging at the creature again before she unleashed one of her spells, blue fire running over its body the blink of an eye later and making it shriek in terrible pain.

"Good one", Buffy complimented, moving closer to the monster again as soon as the flames had stopped crackling, raising her weapon; before she could bring it down though, the creature reacted with surprising speed, especially considering that it just had been hurt, and spun around, it's spiked tail hitting the Slayer and sending her flying until the wall stopped her harshly.

With another growl, Pat jumped the creature as it's back was turned at her, wrapping both arms around it and increasing her fire as much as she dared to in the apartment; although it wasn't burning as bright and hot as it could have, it still seemed to be enough, since the monster let out another shriek, then helplessly started swatting at the demon clinging to its back, not managing to do more damage than some superficial wounds though, scratches which healed almost as quickly as they were inflicted.

Looking a bit dazed, Buffy came to her feet again, picking up the sword and shaking her head to clear it – before she rushed forward, calling out to the demon and prompting her to let go of the creature, just in time to get out of the danger zone, the Slayer running the monster through with her sword moments later. With a harsh twist, she jerked it back out, then brought it up and swung it in another powerful arch; the sharp steel bit through the creature's neck, only slowed marginally by the resistance of the spine, effectively decapitating it, the head falling to the carpet and the body following a few seconds later.

"Oh gross", Pat commented, shifting back to her human form while she watched the blood drip from the neck and head and seep into the carpet, "that stain will never come out. But good job, Buffy."

"Thanks", Buffy dryly gave back, wiping her sword clean on the carpet, figuring it didn't matter since it already was messed up anyway, then gave the taller woman a curious look, gesturing at the dead creature with her now clean sword. "And now, wanna tell me where this thing came from? It looks like the one that came out of that portal when we fought the horsemen."

"Sit down", Willow was the one to answer, even though Buffy had been asking her girlfriend, "this'll take a while. Do you want something to drink?"

After a moment, the Slayer nodded, then moved to the couch and sat down; Giles did the same while Pat vanished into the kitchen, returning a short time later with several cans of cooled coke and taking the seat next to her girlfriend, handing out the drinks before Willow started talking, telling her best friend and the Brit about everything which had happened since they last had seen each other.

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><p>"…wow", Buffy stated several minutes after Willow had finished talking, "that's quite the gross story, you know! You puked that thing up?"<p>

"Wanna know how gross it was for me?" the redhead demanded to know in reply, a bit annoyed about the fact that this seemed to be all Buffy cared about.

"How did this thing get inside you?" Giles wanted to know, putting his glasses back on; while Willow had told her story, he had cleaned them so much that she was surprised the lenses were still there and hadn't been rubbed away to nothing, his question making her shrug helplessly.

"No idea", she then found it necessary to add, "do you think it's inside someone else as well?"

"I think we would have noticed", Pat commented dryly, making the witch look at her briefly before she focused on the Watcher again, relieved when he shook his head.

"I think Pat is right, even though I would have chosen a different wording", he then stated, giving the demon a brief strict look – which she shrugged off anyway – before he focused on the redhead again and continued. "If anyone else had been… infected by this creature, it would have become obvious, seeing how strong your symptoms were. And during the fight, only the three of you were present, so it'd have to be either Buffy or Pat, and none of them show any of those symptoms."

"Good point", Willow had to admit, sounding relieved – the thought of one more of those little spawns of Hell growing within one of her friends had troubled her for a while ever since it had left her body.

"Did this thing hurt you when you fought it after it came through the portal?" Giles wanted to know after thinking for a moment, his face falling when Willow shook her head, Buffy speaking up a second later and destroying his small theory even further. "Pat and me got hurt, but we're not the ones who ended up… kinda pregnant with its offspring."

"That was not a pregnancy", Willow immediately protested, "it didn't exactly get born the way regular babies do."

"Oh God, just imagine how gross _that_ would have been", Pat grimaced, shuddering at the mere thought; nodding, the witch made a face as well, then her eyes lit up as she remembered something, sounding excited when she spoke up again.

"It spat that stuff at me, remember?" she asked both her girlfriend and her best friend, "that slime? That must have been how that thing got inside of me, I'm pretty sure I swallowed some of that stuff or breathed it in…"

"You did brush your teeth before we kissed again after that, right?" the demon demanded to know in reply, making Willow raise an eyebrow, the simple expression being enough as an answer since Pat just cleared her throat and reached for her pack of cigarettes, not bothering to ask again.

"So, this must have been how the parasite ended up inside of you", Giles concluded what everyone else already had figured out anyway, "I assume that this is more or less good, since no one else came in contact with that slime you described… right?"

"Right", Willow agreed, clearly relieved that this meant no one else of her friends was infected with such an unpleasant creature, "and that really is good, but it's even better that we got rid of that thing."

"Um, more or less", Pat pointed out, reminding them all of the creature's corpse by gesturing at it, "we still need to get rid of that thing, I don't really want to keep it around here as fancy decoration or something."

"We'll take care of that", Buffy gave back, rising from her seat and giving Giles a look which prompted him to do the same. "Can we just have a bag for the head?" she then added, "so Giles can carry that, I'll take the body."

"Good that it's in the middle of the night, then no one will see us carry that thing around", the Watcher muttered while Pat went to get a plastic bag, returning with one half a minute later and handing it to the Slayer; she picked the severed head up with an expression of disgust and dropped it into the bag, then handed it to the Brit, a sweet smile on her face now while the disgusted look appeared on his features as he accepted the bag, his disgust increasing when, after a moment, the demon added the plant she had used to keep herself from puking on the carpet.

"Thanks for taking care of that", the witch smiled while Buffy hoisted the creature's body up on her shoulder, "I would have done it with Pat, but honestly, I just wanna go back to sleep. Puking that thing up was really tiring."

"I don't even wanna imagine", Buffy grimaced in reply, then told the redhead to get that sleep she needed before she started to move towards the door, carrying the corpse with ease; Giles followed closely behind her, the plastic bag in one hand.

Even though the lock had been broken when Buffy had opened the door quite roughly, Giles pulled it close behind him as he walked out; Pat made a mental note to herself to have it repaired as fast as possible, figuring that she could ask Xander to do that, before she focused on her girlfriend again, giving her a slightly crooked smile, feeling tired as well now that all the excitement of the evening was over.

"We should get that rest Buffy suggested", she stated, making the witch nod – before she squealed as with surprising speed, the demon moved over to her and picked her up, a giggle escaping her when the taller woman turned away from the couch and started carrying her into the bedroom.

"I'm not so sure you need that sleep", she smirked once she had calmed down again; in reply, the demon just smiled back at her, then entered the bedroom and kicked the door close behind herself, the apartment falling silent again not too long afterwards.

* * *

><p>In the next morning, Willow was the first one to wake up, even though she had switched off her alarm clock before going back to sleep the previous night; technically, she had classes at college that day, but after the excitement of the night before, she'd figured it'd be alright to miss them once, and that she could risk it to sleep in once and skip the lectures of the day.<p>

Already when she woke up, she felt that now, after she had gotten rid of the creature that had been living inside her, everything was back to normal; she did have a healthy appetite for breakfast, but not the monstrous hunger she had felt during the last several days, something she took as a clear sign that with getting rid of the parasite, her problems had ended as well.

With a small, happy sigh, the witch rolled over and just laid there for a while, watching her girlfriend slumber; briefly, Willow pondered if she should wake her up, then decided against it and finally got out of bed, giving her best to make not too much noise as she left the moved on into the adjoining bathroom, closing the door behind herself before she started her morning routine.

While she brushed her teeth, she thought of how she had sat in that bathroom the night before and had stared at her tummy, how the skin had bulged; she shuddered at the memory, then pushed it aside, telling herself that it was over and that there was no need to think of that anymore. Focusing on her morning routine again, she successfully kept those thoughts away; once she had gotten done with that, she made her way into the kitchen, smiling slightly to herself as she filled up the coffee machine, then checked the fridge and tried to decide on what she should make, finally settling for waffles.

While she started to prepare the dough, she heard the sound of her girlfriend getting up, the noise making her smile again; it didn't take long until Pat came trotting into the kitchen, rubbing her good eye and yawning before she gave the redhead a sleepy look, letting herself fall into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.

"Coffee's almost done", Willow told her, her smile widening when the demon only let out a grunt in reply, then lit up a cigarette; holding back at the urge to giggle at her loved one, the witch focused on the dough again, quickly getting done with it and beginning to pour it on the waffle iron.

While the dough sizzled on the hot iron, the redhead moved to the coffee machine, where the coffee had gotten done by now; quickly, she poured the liquid into the two cups she had readied, then added milk to hers and several spoonfuls of sugar to Pat's, the demon letting out another grunt when the cup was put down in front of her. After taking another long drag of her cigarette, she picked the cup up and downed half of it with one big gulp, clearly not minding the fact that the liquid was still steaming hot; after that rather large dose, she also was capable of speech, her first words of the morning making Willow smile again. "That's one of the reasons why I love you, you always make my coffee just right."

"Well, that's not hard", the redhead gave back, moving back to the waffle iron and checking on the dough inside, "all I have to do is pour ungodly amounts of sugar into it. I love you too, though. What are the other reasons?"

"Too many to list", the demon smirked, making Willow giggle in reply; even though the waffles were almost done, she took the time to move to the table and steal a quick, but tender kiss, then focused on the waffle iron again, removing the finished food a few minutes later.

"You know", she stated while she poured another portion of dough onto the hot iron, making it sizzle, "I'm kinda surprised that we got off a bit lightly with that parasite thingy, I mean, now that it's gone, everything's back to normal, as if it never happened."

"Better be happy about that", the black haired woman gave back, taking a bite of her waffle before she spoke on. "You're not feeling any pain or something, right? When you puked that thing up, it surely looked painful."

"No, I'm fine", the witch reassured her, "it did hurt when it came out, but apparently, it managed to do so without hurting me."

"Good for that thing, or I'd kill it all over again", Pat grumbled, making her girlfriend giggle once more; afterwards, the two smiled at each other over the breakfast table, both of them glad and relieved that everything had ended so well and that for now, everything was back to normal, both of them eager to enjoy this rare state as long as it would last.

End.


End file.
